Tokyo, Japan (BBN)-Japanese stocks were leading gains in Asia on Thursday despite disappointing trade figures that showed exports had fallen for a fourth straight month.
The Nikkei 225 was up 2.4 per cent in mid morning trade to 16,217.91, reports BBC.
Rising oil prices were supporting investor sentiment together with better-than-forecast economic data from the US.
Australia's ASX 200 index was higher by 2.07 per cent to 4,983.40.
Big energy companies were supporting the index with giants like BHP up more than 5.5 per cent on higher oil prices.
In China, markets were also in positive territory, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng index up 2.29 per cent to 19,358.22 and the Shanghai Composite up 0.33 per cent to 2,877.03.
Fresh official numbers showed that inflation in China rose to 1.8 per cent in January, slightly weaker than analysts expected.
Elsewhere, South Korea's Kospi index was up 0.9 per cent to 1,900.83 in line with the rest of the region.
BBN/SK/AD