Asia markets closed higher on Wednesday, following the stronger lead from Wall Street overnight as traders appeared to shake off new North Korea missile concerns.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index recovered 143.99 points, or 0.7%, to 19,506.54
The Hang Seng Index hiked 329.60 points, or 1.2%, to 28,094.61
Stocks in Asia had closed down on Tuesday following a North Korea ballistic missile launch earlier in the day. Still, most major indexes closed above the lows they touched earlier in the session, with risk aversion later fading further during the U.S. trading session.
In South Korea, as tech stocks made gains following Tuesday's sell off on North Korea's missile launch: SK Hynix closed up 1.3% and Samsung SDI was soared 3.8%
Down Under, markets closed just above the flatline, with a 5.7% fall in the telecommunication services sub-index offsetting moderate gains in the information technology and consumer staples sectors.
In corporate news, Toshiba could miss an Aug. 31 deadline set by itself to sell its memory chip unit. Toshiba shares closed down 3.5% despite most Japanese tech stocks making gains.
The latest stumbling block faced by Toshiba was a disagreement between parties over the size of Western Digital's share in the business.
Western Digital is part of a consortium, including Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, reportedly offering just below two trillion yen for Toshiba's memory business.
Meanwhile, LG Electronics made a bid for Austrian headlight maker ZKW Group, Reuters said on Tuesday citing Korea Economic Daily. A preferred bidder will reportedly be chosen in September. LG Electronics stock jumped 10.6% by the end of the session, outperforming other South Korean tech stocks.
Shares of Australia's largest telco, Telstra, were in the spotlight after falling almost 8% earlier in the session. The move in share price came after Telstra announced Wednesday it would be abandoning a plan to monetize future income from National Broadband Network. Telsta stock was down 6.3% on the day.
Market movers also included several companies that released half-year earnings after the Tuesday market close. Hong Kong-listed shares of China Southern Airlines were up 4.2% after the airline announced Tuesday that its first-half profit had fallen 11%. Shares of the company traded on the mainland closed up 5.1%.
Also in the airline space, shares of China Eastern Airlines traded in Hong Kong gained 2.4%by late in the trading day after it reported first-half profit jumped 34%. Shares of China Eastern traded on the Shanghai Stock Exchange were up 1.3% by the end of the session.
The U.S. dollar also recovered from a four-and-a-half-month low against the Japanese currency hit after North Korea's Tuesday missile launch. The dollar last fetched 110.11 yen, firmly above the lows of 108.82 yen plumbed earlier this week.
The release of Japan retail sales for the month of July showed an increase of 1.9% compared to one year ago. The figure was above the 1% rise forecast
CHINA
The CSI 300 lost 0.24 points to 3,834.30
The jump in Chinese airline shares came as the People's Bank of China set the yuan reference point at 6.6102 yuan to the U.S. dollar, its strongest in more than a year. The carriers tend to do better when the greenback is weaker as that affects their fuel costs.
In other markets
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index recouped 15.92 points, or 0.5%, to 3,265.26
In Taiwan, the Taiex index gained 72.83 points, or 0.7%, to 10,569.40
In Korea, the Kospi index gained back 7.55 points, or 0.3%, to 2,372.29
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 gained 36.87 points, or 0.5%, to 7,775.21
In Australia, the ASX 200 inched up 0.71 points to 5,669.72
