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Asia buoyed
Asian stocks were buoyed on Wednesday by Tuesday's United States rally, while a firmer yen supported the region's currencies.
Technology stocks across the region, which had suffered in the past several sessions, soared on the back of Tuesday's six percent rise for the Nasdaq. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.62 %.
Overall, investors were a bit cautious taking a cue from a drop in share prices of the world's second largest mobile phone maker, Motorola Inc, in after hours trade as the company reported an operating loss, its first in fifteen years.
Asian currencies reaped the benefit of consolidation in dollar / yen extended because of the pressure on the Euro ahead of the European Central Bank's (ECB) policy setting committee meeting later to decide the interest rates.
Some of the regional were also helped by gains posted by their equity markets and on fears of intervention by central banks that had been aggressively intervening in previous sessions.
However, Mobashar Ahmed, of futuresdata.net, said this breather could be very temporary, given a bleak outlook for the Japanese economy and expectations of further slowing of global demand. "We are going to see more global slowing and a steeper downturn in the tech cycle in the second quarter. So the strength you are seeing in Asia now is temporary," Mr Ahmed said.
Japan biggest gainer
The Nikkei, which had lost 700 points in the past two sessions, was the biggest gainer with a 4.39 % rise as investors hoarded expensive telecom and microchip stocks.
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