Asian share benchmarks rose Thursday after an overnight advance on Wall Street fuelled by strong corporate earnings. Strong trade data and expectations for continued lavish monetary stimulus from Japan’s central bank pushed Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index up 0.6 per cent.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 advanced 0.6 per cent to 20,148.72 and South Korea’s Kospi added 0.1 per cent to 2,432.73. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.3 per cent to 26,749.10 and the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.2 per cent to 3,236.58. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.5 per cent to 5,762.80. Stocks in Southeast Asia were mixed.