Asian shares climb, tracking advances on Wall Street

Tokyo: Asian shares advanced on Wednesday, tracking Wall Street gains as markets there reopened for what’s expected to be a quiet, holiday-shortened week of trading. US futures were higher and oil prices were steady. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index added 1.2 per cent to 33,681.24 as details of a policy meeting by the Bank of Japan showed officials divided about the timing and need to shift away from the central bank’s longstanding lax monetary policy.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 1.9 per cent to 16,661.00 and the Shanghai Composite gained 0.6 per cent to 2,915.05 with Chinese video gaming companies, including Tencent and NetEase, recouping losses in the first Hong Kong trading session after the government attempted to alleviate market fears about draft guidelines to impose controls over how companies earn money from games. However, the gains were dwarfed by the losses from a broad sell-off on Friday. NetEase’s Hong Kong-traded shares gained 10.4 per cent, after its Nasdaq-listed stock added 5.2 per cent on Tuesday. Tencent’s were up 5.9 per cent in Hong Kong and Bilibili added 7.5 per cent. The Kospi in Seoul was up 0.4 per cent to 2,613.50. In Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 was 0.8 per cent higher at 7,561.20. Bangkok’s SET dropped less than 0.1 per cent and the Sensex in Mumbai climbed 0.7 per cent.