Shares in Asia-Pacific were largely higher on Wednesday, with stocks in Hong Kong leading gains regionally.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 faded 9.24 points to 28,874.89.
Minutes from the Bank of Japan’s April monetary policy meeting released Wednesday showed members agreed that stimulus measures, particularly those in advanced economies, could result in a “faster than expected” pace of recovery for Japan and other countries.
In Japan, shares of conglomerate SoftBank Group slipped 0.2% while South Korea’s Naver surged 8.3%.
The Japanese yen changed hands at 110.87 per U.S. dollar, having weakened from below 110 against the greenback earlier this week
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng came out of the funk it had been in the past few days, jumping 507.31 points, or 1.8%, to 28,817.07.
Hong Kong-listed Chinese tech stocks were higher, with both Alibaba and Baidu rising 2.07% each. The broader Hang Seng TECH index rose 2.66% to 8,020.23.
The Australian dollar was at $0.7564, staying above the $0.752 level that it has traded around for much of the trading week so far.
In other markets
In Shanghai, the CSI 300 gained 25.23 points, or 0.5%, to 5,147.39.
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index resurfaced 9.42 points, or 0.3%, to 3,118.62
The Kospi index in Korea added 12.31 points, or 0.4%, to 3,276.19
In Taiwan, the Taiex index popped 261.16 points, or 1.5%, to 17,336.71
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 hiked 51.7 points, or 0.4%, to 12,586.30.
In Australia, the ASX 200 doffed 43.75 points, or 0.6%, to 7,298.45.
