Asian equities opened higher on Wednesday, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street as investors looked past rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and focused instead on a rebound in technology stocks.The gains were led by Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Japan’s Nikkei climbed 1.30% or 861.21 points to 67,093.4, while South Korea’s Kospi surged 4.78% or 322.54 points to 7,070.49 around 9:30 am IST. Taiwan’s benchmark index advanced 1.75% or 775.43 points to 45,008.3. In China, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.50% or 19.217 points to 3,883.584, while the Shenzhen Composite gained 0.61% or 87.622 points to 14,351.914. However, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (HSI) fell 0.73% or 183.24 points to 24,949.05. Back at home, Nifty 50 began in red, slipping 0.15% or 37.25 points to 24,150.45.The broader rally came despite another rise in oil prices after two tankers carrying Saudi crude to Asia reversed course in the Red Sea on Tuesday following threats from Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels. Brent crude climbed 0.6% to $91.55 a barrel, extending gains after settling at a five-week high in the previous session.Meanwhile, Wall Street had ended higher overnight, with the S&P 500 rising 0.9% to snap a three-day losing streak. The rebound was driven by semiconductor shares after data showed Korean semiconductor exports nearly tripled during the first few weeks of July, while a measure of Taiwanese export orders for June exceeded estimates.Chipmakers and data storage firms led the gains. SanDisk and Western Digital each rose more than 7% in early trade, while Marvell Technology and Intel gained 6.2% and 5.7%, respectively. Nvidia added 1.3% after disclosing it had acquired a 9% stake in Dutch cloud computing company Nebius.Outside the technology sector, General Motors rose 1.7% after reporting second-quarter sales and profit that beat Wall Street expectations and raising its guidance.Investor attention is now turning to earnings from Alphabet and Tesla. Alphabet is under increased scrutiny over the delayed launch of a model central to its artificial intelligence strategy, while Tesla is widely expected to report its first quarterly cash burn in more than two years as spending on AI and robotics increases.Pharmaceutical stocks are also expected to remain in focus after US President Donald Trump announced that all generic drugs imported into the United States would face a 0% tariff for two years from August 1. The tariff would then rise to 100% for one year and 200% thereafter.The dollar index, which tracks the US currency against six major peers, stayed close to a one-week high at 101.20. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar slipped 0.1% to 163.06 yen after touching a four-decade high against the currency a day earlier.Bond and currency markets remained largely steady despite higher oil prices ahead of central bank meetings next week. According to the median forecast of economists in a Reuters poll, the US Federal Reserve is expected to leave its key interest rate unchanged for the remainder of 2026, although economists said the likelihood of a rate increase remains high.The yield on the benchmark US 10-year Treasury note was up 0.2 basis point at 4.628%. Gold rose 0.5% to $4,097.67 an ounce.
