The stocks on the Asian bourses are seen through the roof this Wednesday, and look to test Feb highs on the back of renewed optimism spurred by upbeat US manufacturing data and the oil price rally.
Nikkei outperforms Asian peers
The Japanese benchmark index, the Nikkei 225, seems unstoppable and extends the previous rally, up 4% at 14,726. The ongoing weakness in the yen versus its US counterpart combined with higher oil prices boosts the sentiment, while the index also tracks the solid gains on the Wall Street overnight. Meanwhile, USD/JPY trades modestly flat just ahead of 114 handle.
The Australian markets also jumped higher, now pushing the ASX 200 index back above 5k mark levels, up 1.84% so far. Markets cheer the stronger than expected Aus Q4 GDP figures, which offered fresh life to domestic equities. The Australian economy expanded 0.6% in Q4 2015, beating forecasts of a 0.4% growth.
The index was led higher by the banking stocks, which gained 3.5% to 4%, while the energy stocks also contributed to the upside. Beach Energy and AWE each soared more than 8%, while Woodside Petroleum bounced almost 5% higher.
The Chinese stock markets also resumed the bullish momentum after a subdued start, with the Shanghai Composite up 0.75%, Shenzhen’s CSI300 rallies 1.30%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rockets 2.70%.
(Market News Provided by FXstreet)