Asian Shares Gain, Led By Japan

Stocks in Asia traded higher early Wednesday, reflecting gains on Wall Street overnight and bargain hunting by investors in Japan, where markets have been especially volatile.

The Nikkei Stock Average was up 1.9%, even as the dollar was roughly unchanged. Japanese stocks have had an especially rough run lately, falling over 10% from a late September peak and seesawing earlier this week. On Tuesday, it lost 2%.

The index has moved inversely with the dollar, which when stronger tends to help support Japanese exporters. Earlier, data showed that Japanese exports rose 6.9% from a year earlier in September, helped by the yen's descent and a surge in output among suppliers of Apple Inc.'s new smartphones.

Still, the nation's trade deficit still edged up 1.6% to Yen958.3 billion from a year earlier, the first increase in three months.

The greenback, which started rallying from August, has been giving back gains since early October, although it is still up 1.6% so far this year against the yen. On Wednesday, it was at Yen107.03 compared with Yen107.00 late Tuesday in New York.

Elsewhere, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.8% at 5366.40 and Korea's Kospi was up 0.5% at 1925.19.

"Analysts are divided over the spur for the rallies. Some point to the potential for European stimulus, while others are looking to steady growth numbers from China," Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, said.

Overnight, U.S. stocks rallied on the back of upbeat technology earnings and reports that the European Central Bank was considering buying corporate bonds.

--Robb Stewart contributed to this article.

Write to Chao Deng at [e-mail]

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