It was a strong upward trend on the stock exchanges in China and Hong Kong after a few hours of Wednesday's trading, among other things following news of further stimulus from China's central bank.
In Hong Kong, trading started with a 3 percent increase for the Hang Seng index, but had later leveled off to a 1.9 percent increase.
In China, the composite index in Shanghai and Shenzhen was up 2.4 and 3.1 percent, respectively.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index showed a plus of 0.3 percent, and the broader Topix a plus of 0.1 percent. In South Korea, the Kospi index was just below zero.
