Tokyo, Japan (BBN)-Asian markets headed higher on Wednesday as investor appetite picked up on the debut of the world's biggest share-offering this year: Japan Post.
Japan Post and its banking and insurance units started trading in Tokyo after an initial public offering (IPO) topped $11.5bn (£7.4bn), reports BBC.
It was the biggest debut since Alibaba's $25bn IPO last year.
Shares of Japan Post and its units made gains of 16 per cent to 33 per cent above their IPO prices in early trade.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 1.9 per cent at 19,034.86.
Investors are also looking ahead to employment data out of the US on Friday to see whether it will support the case for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in December.
Chinese shares opened higher with the Shanghai Composite up 0.7 per cent to 3,338.63, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was higher by 0.8 per cent to 22,752.94.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index was up 0.6 per cent to 5,269.30 as the benchmark got a boost from energy shares on the rebound in oil prices.
Crude oil prices surged 4 per cent overnight when US gasoline and diesel rallied following an outage on a key pipeline system.
In South Korea, the Kospi index was down 0.1 per cent to 2,046.41 - reversing earlier gains.
BBN/SK/AD