The majority of Asian equities moved higher overnight, with Chinese markets posting disproportionate gains following Beijing's announcement of several fresh stimulus plans meant to support economic expansion.
Wall Street, where the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 reached all-time highs thanks to the strength of technology companies, provided a favourable lead-in for regional markets. In Asian trading, U.S. stock index futures remained stable.
Following the Federal Reserve's dramatic reduction in interest rates last week, investors' mood towards the stock market remained positive, and they are now looking for more signals from the central bank in the days ahead.
After the People's Bank of China unveiled a plethora of stimulus measures on Tuesday, including a reduction in mortgage rates and bank reserve requirements, the markets rebounded.
Beijing was reportedly thinking of providing local equities with massive liquidity support.
The actions increased expectations that China's economy will expand after almost three years of sharply deflationary deflation and weak corporate activity.
Given that the CSI 300 and Shanghai Composite indices had fallen to more than seven-month lows earlier in September, Chinese equities also profited from bargain buying.
However, experts predicted that the steps would not be enough to bring about a Chinese economic recovery, with ANZ claiming that further fiscal measures were required to spur development.
August producer inflation increased somewhat, according to statistics from the corporate services price index, although the Nikkei 225 index in Japan increased by 0.5%. The TOPIX as a whole remained unchanged. The data was obtained only a few days prior to Friday's anticipated consumer inflation report from Tokyo.
Wednesday's sideways trading of Australia's ASX 200 index was mostly unaffected by optimism over China, the country's main trading partner.
The Reserve Bank of Australia's hawkish signals, which maintained interest rates on Tuesday, caused local markets to struggle. Although the bank noted no imminent adjustments to rates and is expected to keep them high for longer, Governor Michele Bullock took a little less hawkish attitude than some were expecting.
The RBA's position was primarily motivated by sticky inflation, notwithstanding data released on Wednesday indicating a significant decrease in consumer price index inflation in August. However, core CPI inflation continued to be sticky and higher than the RBA's objective.
(Sources: investing.com, reuters.com)
