Sentiment was bolstered by Tuesday's U.S. manufacturing data for December, which beat market expectations and added to a string of positive economic data released over the past few days. Tuesday's gains on Wall Street also supported the positive mood in Asia after the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose to its highest level since July and registered the third-biggest point gain to start a new year in its history.
"Investors like the fact that we had better-than-expected December manufacturing data around the world," said Macquarie Private Wealth division director Martin Lakos. "I don't think we [can hang] our hats on one month of data, but it's nice to see markets reacting positively to good news."
Japan's Nikkei Stock Average climbed 1.4%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 advanced 2.3%, South Korea's Kospi Composite was flat and New Zealand's NZX-50 added 0.3%.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down nine points in screen trade.
Resources plays were sharply higher across the region after both base metals and precious metals rose on Tuesday, with copper rising 2.5% to a three-week high on the London Metal Exchange, as economic data indicating strength in global manufacturing activity pointed to steady demand. BHP Billiton climbed 4.0%, Fortescue Metals Group advanced 3.6% and Rio Tinto jumped 3.2% in Sydney, while Sumitomo Metal Mining rose 2.0% in Tokyo.
Energy plays were also higher after Nymex crude climbed 4.2% on Tuesday. In Sydney, Woodside Petroleum rose 3.4% and Santos gained 2.4%. In Seoul, S-Oil added 1.0% and SK Innovation advanced 1.7%, while Inpex advanced 2.9% in Tokyo.
Suzuki Motor rose 3.2% in Tokyo following a Nikkei report that the company plans to build another engine factory in Indonesia, tripling its annual output in that country to 150,000 units.
Shares in Korea underperformed their regional peers amid profit-taking in select technology plays following Tuesday's outperformance. Samsung Electronics fell 1.6%, and LG Electronics slid 1.5%, while Hynix Semiconductor bucked the trend, rising 0.9%.
In foreign exchange markets the euro was roughly steady against the U.S. dollar following a near 1.0% rise on Tuesday, as upward momentum stalled amid caution over the euro zone's sovereign debt problems.
"Markets are generally taking an optimistic interpretation of events with global equities rallying and a positive risk tone also pervading FX markets," said RBC Capital Markets Senior Currency Strategist David Watt. "A sustained [euro] rally seems more likely the longer [European Union] political leaders remain absent from market headlines."
The single currency was at $1.3048, from $1.3050 late on Tuesday in New York, and at ¥99.99, from ¥100.17. The dollar was at ¥76.63, from ¥76.76.
Spot gold was at $1,599.90 a troy ounce, down $3.70 from its New York settlement on Tuesday. February Nymex crude oil futures were down 10 cents at $102.86 a barrel on Globex.
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