Asian stocks rallied early Wednesday, following a bullish lead from Wall Street and firmer crude oil prices. This was the fifth straight day of gains for energy and tech stocks.
Japanese stocks helped move the markets with three major Japanese IPOs: the postal arm, the banking division and the insurance division of Japan Post.
According to Brian Jacobsen, chief portfolio strategist at Wells Fargo Advantage Funds, "Part of was due to news of possible supply disruption in Brazil and Libya, pushing the price of Brent crude higher and in general, there's a tight correlation between the movements in Brent and energy stocks. I see a favorable backdrop for investing in energy: cheap valuations, low expectations and I think oil prices could move higher from here so that's a good formula for success."
Higher Indices
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 1.7 percent.
China's key Shanghai Composite index edged up 0.4 percent while the blue-chip CSI300 index advanced 0.5 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index notched up nearly 1 percent.
Australia's benchmark S&P ASX 200 index continued to gain with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and National Australia Bank moving up more than 1 percent each, while Westpac gained 0.9 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.5 percent and S&P 500 0.3 percent while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.4 percent. The Nasdaq 100 closed up 0.3 percent at 4,719.05, topping its previous record close set in March 2000.