Asia markets advanced on Wednesday morning, supported by broad dollar weakness and higher oil prices overnight, with Japanese stocks extending gains from the previous session on the back of a relatively weaker yen.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 was up 0.77 percent in early trade. Across the Korean Strait, the Kospi was higher by 0.44 percent, while Australia's ASX 200 added 0.54 percent, led by a 2 percent gain in the energy subindex.

Rodrigo Catril, a currency strategist with the National Australia Bank, wrote in an early morning note, "Commodities are higher across the board while commodity related currencies sit at the top of the G10 leader board, with the yen the only currency weaker against the dollar."

As of 8:22 a.m. HK/SIN time, the dollar/yen pair traded at 109.07, a 0.11 percent drop from its overnight close at 109.17. That compares with the 108 level it traded at on Tuesday during Asian hours.

Major Japanese exporters were mixed, with shares of Toyota down 0.07 percent, Nissan up 0.19 percent, Honda lower by 0.23 percent and Sony adding 2.97 percent. While a weaker yen is a positive for exporters, as it boosts their overseas profits when converted to local currency, many of these exporters were recently affected by the multiple earthquakes that hit the south of Japan late last week.

The likes of Sony, Toyota and Honda have all had to suspend plants in the affected region, with Toyota announcing on Sunday it would suspend production on its vehicle assembly lines in stages, between April 18 and April 23, due to supply shortages resulting from the quakes.

The dollar index, which measures the dollar against a basket of currencies, advanced during Asian hours, up 0.15 percent at 94.121, compared with its overnight close at 93.976.

Oil prices advanced during US hours, with global benchmark Brent futures settling up USD 1.12 at USD 44.03 a barrel, while US crude was up USD 1.30 at USD 41.08.

Reuters reported that thousands of Kuwaiti oil workers remained on strike for a third day on Tuesday to protest planned public sector pay reform. Citing news agency KUNA, Reuters said the action cut crude output to 1.5 million barrels per day - a little more than half of Kuwait's average output of 2.8 million barrels per day in March.

Down Under, the Australian dollar retreated from its last close at $0.7811, boosted by overnight advances in oil, to trade down 0.27 percent at USD 0.7790 as of 8:30 a.m. HK/SIN time.

Australian banking stocks were mostly higher, with the country's so-called Big Four banks - ANZ, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac and NAB - trading up between 0.21 and 0.4 percent.

"The hunt for yield evident in the currency markets is likely to see investors keen to pick up the big banks," said Angus Nicholson, a market analyst at IG, in a morning note.

The country's resources producers advanced broadly, with major miners Rio Tinto up 4.18 percent, Fortescue higher by 7.08 percent and BHP Billiton adding 2.24 percent.

Overnight, base metal prices on the London Metal Exchange mostly advanced according to Reuters data. Three-month copper prices ended up 2.3 percent, zinc was up 2.3 percent, aluminum gained 1.1 percent and lead was up 2.7 percent.

Investors mostly shrugged off BHP's guidance before market open; the miner cut its guidance for fiscal 2016 iron ore production by 10 million tonnes to 260 million tonnes, pointing to adverse weather and the initiation of an accelerated rail network maintenance program. BHP's guidance comes just a day after Rio Tinto cut its 2017 production guidance from its Australian iron ore mines.

Major US indexes finished mixed, with the Dow Jones industrial average closing up 0.27 percent and the S&P 500 adding 0.31 percent, while the Nasdaq composite fell 0.4 percent.

Share Market Live

NSE

First Published:Apr 20, 2016 7:54 AM IST