Stocks advanced in Asia on Wednesday after a wobbly day on Wall Street, when the S&P 500 gave back most of its gains from a day earlier. Hong Kong led the advance, gaining 1.7 per cent. Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai and Sydney also were higher. Investors have taken heart from an easing in bond prices that has alleviated worries over possible interest rate hikes. Bond yields have eased and the yield on the 10-year Treasury inched down to 1.40 per cent early Wednesday. But expectations for stronger economic growth in coming months continue to fuel worries that interest rates will head higher. It feels like we are in the eye of the storm," Stephen Innes of Axi said in a commentary. Investors have recently focused on selling high-priced technology shares but are also watching for policy changes as President Joe Biden's USD 1.9 billion stimulus package heads into the Senate after narrowly passing in the House. How much overheating and inflation will the Biden fiscal stimulus generate remains
Wall Street had retreated overnight after beginning March with a bang, with the S&P 500 staging its best one-day rally in nine months on Monday
Broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices, highlighting underlying strength in the market. The S&P BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices ended 1.55 per cent & 1.6 per cent higher, respectively
The advance to decline ratio favoured bulls as nearly 2x stocks rose for every 1 stock that declined on the BSE
Stock exchanges said on Monday their systems were working normally after some investors complained on social media of certain technical issues with their brokers
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.1%, after shedding 3.7% last Friday'
The benchmark BSE Sensex crashed more than 1,900 points
In the intra-day trade, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex tumbled 2,149 points while the Nifty50 index slumped 629 points
Sectorally, the Nifty Metal, PSU Bank, and Bank indices advanced 25 per cent, 40 per cent, and 20 per cent, respectively during the February F&O series
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.90% in early trade while Japan's Nikkei 225 added 1.37%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index futures rose 0.92%
Often the causes are software glitches, hardware failures and internet connectivity problems
The tech-heavy Nasdaq index closed down 0.5% as investors sold the big tech stocks that have driven the market rally since last March
In the broader markets, the Nifty MidCap 100 and SmallCap 100 indices settled with gains of about 1 per cent on the NSE
Instances of stocks being transferred to the trade-for-trade segment rose 12-25 per cent across exchanges during the year
The NSE Nifty 50 index .NSEI was down 0.68% to 14,880.75 by 0454 GMT, while the S&P BSE Sensex .BSESN was 0.85% lower at 50,446.43
Japan's Nikkei recouped 1.0% and South Korea 0.4%, while E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 were a fraction firmer
The Nifty PSU bank index ended as the top laggard on the NSE, down 4.7 per cent, after surging nearly 6 per cent each over the past two days
MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside of Japan was last down 0.1per cent at 733.67 from a record high of 745.89 touched on Thursday
Sectorally, the Nifty PSU Bank index jumped another 5.6 per cent today, while the Nifty CPSE and Energy indices settled up to 4 per cent higher
In the intra-day session, the Sensex and the Nifty indices touched a low of 51,586 and 15,171, respectively.