Rise in Tokyo and Hong Kong

There were positive figures for leading indexes on the stock exchanges in Japan and Hong Kong after a few hours of initial trading on Wednesday.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index was up 0.6 per cent, while Topix was up 0.7 per cent.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was up as much as 1.6 per cent.

In China, the mood was more subdued, with the composite indexes in Shanghai and Shenzhen down 0.4 and 0.8 per cent, respectively.