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Asia markets traded higher on Wednesday morning, after a rise in oil prices powered gains in US equities overnight.

Australia's ASX 200 was up 1.18 percent in early trade, boosted by advances in the heavily-weighted financials subindex, up 1.07 percent. The energy and materials subindexes were also up 2.81 and 2.76 percent respectively.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 advanced 1.42 percent, buoyed by relative weakness in the yen against the dollar. The dollar/yen pair traded at 108.64 as of 8:56 a.m. HK/SIN time, marginally higher from 108.53 in the previous session.

Major Japanese exporters mostly advanced, with shares of Toyota up 0.64 percent, Nissan higher by 1.71 percent and Honda adding 1.48 percent. Shares of Sony declined 0.23 percent.

A weaker yen is a positive for exporters as it increases their overseas profit when converted into local currency.

In company news, shares of Nomura were off 1.35 percent, after climbing 7.43 percent in the previous session after reports during market hours on Tuesday said the Japanese bank will restructure its business in Europe and the Americas, closing some operations in Europe.

Elsewhere, the Australian dollar advanced overnight to USD 0.7683, with analysts attributing the rise to higher oil prices and improvement in risk appetite. On Wednesday morning Asia time, the Aussie traded at USD 0.7690.

Kathy Lien, managing director of foreign exchange strategy at BK Asset Management, said in a note that an upside surprise in Chinese trade numbers, which are due later today, could boost the Aussie to fresh highs.

Australian miners broadly advanced, boosted by gains in base metal prices overnight. Shares of major miners Rio Tinto, Fortescue and BHP Billiton advanced between 2.7 and 4 percent.

Three month copper prices on the London Metal Exchange rose 2.2 percent overnight, Aluminum climbed 1.7 percent and zinc advanced 4 percent, initially supported by a relatively softer dollar, according to Reuters.

Iron ore prices advanced more than 4.6 percent, climbing from USD 55.90 on Monday to USD 58.50 overnight.

Oil prices advanced overnight, with Brent futures adding 4.3 percent to USD 44.69 a barrel, while US crude futures advanced 4.48 percent to USD 42.17.

Major US indexes closed up overnight, with the Dow Jones industrial average adding 0.94 percent, the S&P 500 up 0.97 percent and the Nasdaq composite higher by 0.8 percent.

Markets in South Korea and Thailand are closed today, while China is expected to release its March trade data.

Angus Nicholson, a market analyst at IG, said in a note given the "big moves in commodities, some fundamental evidence showing that Chinese imports have picked up alongside their first-quarter fiscal stimulus should help provide some support to the recent gains we have seen."

First Published:Apr 13, 2016 7:49 AM IST