Stocks in Asia rose on Wednesday oil prices retraced some of their overnight gains.
Markets in Tokyo remained shuttered for holiday. The Japanese yen traded at 106.31 per U.S. dollar following levels around 106.8 seen yesterday.
The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong marched ahead 268.32, or 1.1%, to 24,137.48, with shares of life insurer AIA jumping more than 2%.
Korean stocks rose, as shares of automaker Hyundai Motor jumped 1.9%.
Australian markets settled a mite, as the country’s retail sales in March rose 8.5%, according to data released Wednesday by the country’s Bureau of Statistics. That was above expectations of a 8.2% increase from an economist poll.
The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.644 after rising from levels below $0.642 earlier in the trading week.
In other markets
In Shanghai, the CSI 300 returned to trading with a gain of 23.67 points, or 0.6%, to 3,936.25.
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index added 19.24 points, or 0.8%, to 2,591.60.
In Taiwan, the Taiex index inched up 0.37 points to 10,774.98.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 jumped 82.12 points, or 0.8%, to 10,572.84.
In Australia, the ASX 200 lost 22.46 points, or 0.4%, to 5,384.61.
