Asian stocks outpace U.S. recovery
(CNN) -- Asian markets closed sharply higher Wednesday, building on Wall Street's modest recovery.
South Korea led the way, surging 2.6 percent, while Japan was up about 1.8 percent.
U.S. stocks rose Tuesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve left interest rates at 1958 lows, as expected.
Japanese techs and automakers, which fell on Tuesday, led Wednesday's gains in Tokyo.
Big banks were also higher.
The Nikkei 225 average put on 1.73 percent to 11,436.86, more than erasing the previous day's 0.67 percent fall.
The broader Topix index closed 1.85 percent higher at 1141.71.
Other Asian markets were also higher, with solid gains for Singapore and Hong Kong as they head towards the close.
Australia put on 0.7 percent and New Zealand closed 0.32 percent ahead.
But Taiwan gave back early gains to finish just in the red.
The dollar again declined, trading late in the day in Tokyo at 108.21 yen.
Hitachi and NEC led the gains among tech-related stocks in Japan, both up about 3.3 percent. Kyocera rose 3 percent to 8510 yen.
Consumer electronics leader Sony ended up 1.87 percent to 4350 yen, while Fujitsu rose 2.3 percent and Mitsubishi Electric surged 4.4 percent to 571 yen.
In the auto sector, Honda was up 2.1 percent to 4800 yen, Nissan ended 1.1 percent ahead at 1194 yen and Toyota rose 0.8 percent to 3820 yen.
Reflecting the market's broad advance, mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo was up 2.2 percent to 228,000 yen.
Among the big banks, SMFG led the gains, up 2.2 percent to 718,000 yen. Mizuho ended about 1.5 percent higher at 415,000 yen but UFJ slipped half a percent to 617,000 yen.
As expected, the central Bank of Japan left its monetary policy unchanged Tuesday. (Full story)
Seoul higher
In Seoul, the Kospi closed up 2.62 percent to 872.38 -- still well below a 23-month high of 910.67 it hit on March 8.
Samsung Electronics ended 3.2 percent higher at 545,000 won.
The big mover was leading exporter Hyundai Motor, which jumped almost 5.6 percent to 52,000 won.
Shinhan financial group recovered all of Tuesday's 3 percent-plus fall to close 4.2 percent higher at 20,900 won.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 was up 0.7 percent to 3438.4 after easing slightly on Tuesday.
Media group News Corp. was about 0.6 percent higher to A$11.99.
Resources leader BHP Billiton put on 1.5 percent to A$12.35 after unveiling a management restructure.
Insurer AMP fell 0.2 percent to A$5.28 after pricing a $900 million debt buyback. (Full story)
Singapore's Straits Times index is 0.8 percent ahead at 1841.56. SingTel and Singapore Airlines are both up about 0.9 percent.
Taiwan's Taiex closed 0.18 percent lower at 6577.98 after being up more than 1 percent earlier in the day.
Formosa Plastic was up almost 2 percent to T$53.00. Market heavyweight TSMC was steady at T$60.50.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index is up about half a percent to 12,994.20, with solid gains for HSBC and PCCW.
In New Zealand, the Top 50 closed 0.32 percent higher to 2510.30.
New Zealand's central bank released a briefing paper Wednesday in which it said it will ask the government for a capital injection to fund a proposed new policy of currency intervention.
The moves in Asia come after a modest recovery on Wall Street Tuesday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq up 0.2 percent and the Dow putting on 0.8 percent. (Full story
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