Asian indexes surged Wednesday, buoyed by overnight gains on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve cut benchmark U.S. interest rates.
In Tokyo, The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index rose 579.74 points to close at 16,381.54 while in Hong Kong, the blue chip Hang Seng Index fell 1.2 percent to 24,599.34.
Financial and exporter issues were among the gainers Wednesday. Toyota Motor Corp. rose 4.9 percent to 6,700 yen. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group jumped 6.1 percent to 1.05 million yen.
The Bank of Japan also announced it will keep its interest rates unchanged at 0.5 percent after a two-day meeting. The decision was within market expectation.
Hirokata Kusaba, senior economist with Mizuho Research Institute in Tokyo, said that once global markets stabilize, the Bank of Japan is likely to resume raising rates, perhaps later this year.
ELSEWHERE:
SEOUL: South Korea's Kospi surged 3.5% to 1,902.65.
SINGAPORE: Singapore's Straits Times Index jumped 3.4% to 3,594.36.
WELLINGTON: New Zealand's NZX 50 index climbed 1.3% to 4,177.65.
SYDNEY: Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.6 percent to 6,271.4.
with files from other wire services
