Asian markets mostly higher after Wall St rally

HONG KONG: Asian markets rose further Thursday following another record performance from Wall Street, while Tokyo hit fresh multi-year highs as the dollar approached the 100-yen mark.

While buying sentiment remains positive, dealers are keeping an eye on the stand-off on the Korean peninsula as the North, expected to fire a missile within the next few days, ratchets up its bellicose rhetoric.

Tokyo rose 0.83 percent by the break, Hong Kong added 0.81 percent, Sydney was 0.55 percent higher, Shanghai climbed 0.29 percent and Seoul lost 0.27 percent.

Regional markets extended their recent positive run on the back of a Wall Street rally fuelled by minutes from the last Federal Reserve policy meeting reasserting a commitment to keep easy-money policies in place until the jobs market picks up.

The minutes said: "Many participants... expressed the view that continued solid improvement in the outlook for the labour market could prompt the committee to slow the pace of purchases beginning at some point over the next several meetings."

The March 19-20 meeting came after a February jobs surge, which added 268,000 non-farm payrolls.

But March data released last week showed a paltry gain of 88,000 jobs, the slowest growth in nine months and below expectations, leading dealers to bet there will not be in any hurry to ease up on stimulus.