Asian stocks ex-China advance, Trump’s presser eyed

The stocks on the Asian indices had a positive start on Wednesday, and remained mostly higher, following a strong close on the US stocks.

However, gains remained capped as cautiousness set into markets, as investors gear up for Trump's first full press conference as president-elect. All eyes will on his comments on fiscal spending plans and policy intentions.

The sentiment around the region’s indices remained buoyed amid an overnight rebound in oil and metals’ prices, offering some incentive to the resource and energy sector stocks. Mining stocks are among the leading gainers, in wake of upbeat Chinese PPI data, which supports the commodity-heavy Aussie stocks. While a recovery in USD/JPY drove the exporters’ stocks higher on the Japanese indices.

The Japanese benchmark, the Nikkei 225 index trades +0.37% higher at 19,370. The Australian benchmark, ASX 200 index rises +0.28% to 5,776 points. Mainland Chinese markets trade largely subdued, with the Shanghai composite down -0.15%, while Shenzhen’s CSI 300 index drops -0.23%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng advances +0.84% to 22,940.