Asian markets mostly climbed on Wednesday, with dealers taking a positive cue from Wall Street and Europe, following a surge in investor confidence in eurozone powerhouse Germany.
Japanese shares posted healthy gains as the yen softened and data showed exports rose for the first time in eight months in January, although the country still posted its worst ever monthly trade deficit.
Tokyo added 1.00 per cent, Sydney was 0.28 per cent higher, Seoul jumped 1.22 per cent, Hong Kong climbed 0.40 per cent and Shanghai was off 0.40 per cent.
On Wall Street investors returned from a three-day weekend to send the Dow and S&P 500 to more than five-year highs thanks to fresh merger and acquisition news.
The Dow rose 0.39 per cent to its best level since October 12, 2007 and the S&P 500 was up 0.73 per cent, hitting its highest point since October 31, 2007. The Nasdaq gained 0.68 per cent.
Reports that office supply retailers Office Depot and OfficeMax were planning a tie-up followed last week’s news of a merger between American Airlines and US Airways, and the Berkshire Hathaway-3G Capital takeover of Heinz.
Hopes for an end to Europe’s long struggles were given a fillip by the widely watched ZEW economic institute investor confidence index in Germany, which soared to 48.2 points in February from 31.5 points in January, its highest level since April 2010.