HK, Tokyo stocks on the upswing

A pedestrian walks infront of an electric quotation board displaying the numbers on the Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange. (AFP)

Hong Kong shares rose in the first few minutes of Wednesday morning as traders were cheered by the broadly optimistic tone across regional markets as they bet on fresh easing measures from leading central banks.

The Hang Seng Index added 0.40 percent, or 106.96 points, to 26,790.64.

And the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.29 percent, or 8.73 points, to 3,029.93, while the Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China’s second exchange, gained 0.20 percent, or 3.44 points, to 1,690.75.

Meanwhile, Tokyo stocks opened higher as the yen remained cheaper against the dollar, providing some support to Japanese exporters amid a lack of other fresh market-moving events.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.36 percent or 76.87 points at 21,468.97 while the broader Topix index was up 0.52 percent or 8.10 points at 1,566.09.

“A risk-on sentiment is likely to continue on the backdrop of a cheaper yen against the dollar, while caution remains ahead of the ECB meeting” later this week, Okasan Online Securities said in a commentary.

The dollar fetched 107.57 yen in early Asian trade, against 107.53 yen in New York late Tuesday.

Automakers were higher, with Nissan trading up 2.69 percent at 716.3 yen, Honda up 1.82 percent at 2,841.5 yen and Toyota up 0.79 percent at 7,240 yen.

Some other exporters were higher, with Panasonic up 1.25 percent at 892.5 yen and Nikon up 1.30 percent at 1,400 yen.