Main Asian indexes made gains of up to 1.5% during Wednesday's trading session. The only index which closed in negative territory was the Shenzhen Composite, which shed 0.03%. Other indexes advanced. The Shanghai Composite added 0.2% while the KOSPI gained 0.4%. The Nikkei 225 and the S&P/ASX 200 rose by 0.93% and 0.96% respectively. The Hang Seng Index posted the largest increase of 1.4%.
Asian markets were optimistic ahead of the release of US inflation data, which is due tomorrow. According to preliminary estimates, inflation in the US decreased to 6.5% in December from 7.1% in November.
Additional support came from positive news related to major companies. In Japan, shares of Fast Retailing, Co. went up by 1.21% after the company announced it would raise salaries of its employees by 40%.
Meanwhile, Japan's composite index of coincident economic indicators for November fell by 0.5 points to 97.6 from 98.6 in October, reaching the lowest level in two years.
On the Nikkei 225, Yaskawa Electric, Corp rose by 6.4%, while Hoya, Corp. and Keyence, Corp. added 5.8% and 5% respectively.
The People's Bank of China has injected 87 billion yuan ($12.86 billion) of reverse repos into the country's banking system to maintain liquidity. Out of that sum, 65 billion yuan were 7-day reverse repos with an interest rate of 2%.
The best-performing Chinese stock was Wuxi Biologics (Cayman), Inc., which increased by 6.9%. Baidu, Inc. and Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China Ltd. both added 4.9%.
South Korean stocks on the KOSPI also increased, with Samsung Electronics, Co. and KIA, Corp, rising by 0.5% and 0.6% respectively.
In Australia, retails sales climbed by 1.4% in November from 0.4% in October in its tenth consecutive monthly increase. Retail sales reached the highest level in 2022, greatly surpassing the expected increase by 0.6%
However, consumer prices have also risen by 7.3%, above a 6.9% increase reported in October.
Share of the largest Australian companies went up: BHP gained 1.5% and Rio Tinto advanced by 1%.
