Asian markets rise on Alibaba boost as anxiety over banks starts to fade
Asian shares surge as easing concerns over the banking sector revived risk appetite, while Alibaba's plans to split into six units lifted Chinese tech stocks.
The closely watched consumer confidence index increased in March to 104.2 from 103.4 last month, The Conference Board said in a statement.
Asian stocks have been broadly up to buck losses on Wall Street, led by massive gains for Chinese tech behemoth Alibaba after it announced it would split into six groups.
The Hangzhou-based firm said the changes were intended to "unlock shareholder value and foster market competitiveness".
Alibaba is one of China's most prominent tech firms, with operations spanning cloud computing, e-commerce, logistics, media and entertainment and artificial intelligence.
By 0700 GMT on Wednesday, its Hong Kong-listed shares were up by more than 12 percent. Its New York-listed shares were also up in the previous session.
"Investors could get hyped on the positive side in the short term," said Willer Chen, senior research analyst at Forsyth Barr Asia.
"Alibaba's shakeup plan may also lead investors to think of the potential for other tech firms like Tencent to follow suit."
Tencent and Baidu also advanced.
READ MORE: IMF calls for continued vigilance as risks to financial stability increase
Alibaba will split into six business groups in one of the most significant overhauls of a leading Chinese tech firm to date pic.twitter.com/r99JKlLf8N
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Turmoil in the sector
At mid-afternoon, the Hang Seng Index was up by just under two percent, having troubled three percent earlier in the day.
The Nikkei 225 index had advanced 1.33 percent by the close in Tokyo, where Softbank — which owns a large stake in Alibaba — had risen by just over two percent.
Despite losses on Wall Street, the Tokyo market proved resilient as "excessive fears over the European financial system dwindled", IwaiCosmo Securities said.
There were gains on most other Asian bourses, though Shanghai posted small losses.
Following a flattish day in European markets on Tuesday, US stock indices finished modestly lower, shrugging off a better-than-expected consumer confidence reading.
The gains followed last week's rout over concerns that the turmoil in the banking sector — which sparked the UBS takeover of Credit Suisse — could hit other major institutions, such as German giant Deutsche Bank.
READ MORE: What's causing the Credit Suisse scare and the drop in global stocks?
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