Asia-Pacific markets mostly edged higher Tuesday following a relatively subdued start to the global trading week as investors look ahead to the Fed meeting stateside.
The Nikkei 225 jumped 154.12 points, or 0.5%, to 29,921.09.
The Japanese yen changed hands at 109.2, staying relatively flat.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng hiked 193.93 points, or 0.7%, to 29,027.69.
Australian markets made progress. Most sectors traded up except for energy, which dropped 0.2%, and materials sub-indexes, which closed down 0.7%.
Oil stocks and major miners closed mixed but the so-called Big Four banks advanced: Shares of Commonwealth Bank climbed 0.9% while ANZ rose 0.6%, Westpac added 0.6% and National Australia Bank advanced 0.4%.
Stateside, the Federal Open Market Committee is due to meet today and tomorrow.
Every quarter, members of the FOMC forecast where interest rates will go in the short, medium and long term. These projections are represented visually in charts and are called a dot plot.
A surge in interest rates and a rebounding U.S. economy has put the central bank’s easy policies in the spotlight and market watchers have questioned when the Fed may consider unwinding those policies.
The Bank of England is due to meet on Thursday and the Bank of Japan will also begin its two-day policy meeting that day.
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of Australia released the minutes of its March monetary policy meeting, and said that members concluded "very significant monetary support would be required for some time, as it would be some years before the Bank’s goals for inflation and unemployment were achieved."
Meanwhile, the Australian dollar fell 0.36% to $0.7726.
In other markets
In China, the CSI 300 restocked 43.82 points, or 0.9%, to 5,079.36.
In Taiwan, the Taiex recovered 63.83 points, or 0.4%, to 16,313.16.
In Korea, the Kospi index picked up 21.46 points, or 0.7%, to 3,067.17.
In Singapore, the Straits Times index eased 0.49 points to 3,105.51.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 added 96.8 points, or 0.8%, to 12,689.05
In Australia, the ASX 200 moved higher 54.12 points, or 0.8%, to 6,827.14.
