Investing.com - Shares in Sydney adn Tokyo gained on Wednesday in Asia, but Shanghai was down slightly with all of the focus on the results this week of the latest Federal Reserve views on interest rates.
The Nikkei 225 rose 0.97% afterthe break with the S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.34% in afternoon dealing. The Shanghai Composite however eased 0.03%.
Ealier, Reserve Bank of Australia Assistant Governor Guy Debelle said the move by Chinese authorities to a more market-determined exchange rate should be welcomed and the initial depreciation should be view in context.
Debelle spoke to the Actuaries Institute banking in Sydney and said the move was a depreciation "not all that big in the general scheme of exchange rate moves," Debelle said, noting that it came in the context of a more than 15% appreciation of the renminbi in trade-weighted terms over the past year.
"What matters for global financial markets is the difference in portfolio allocation between the public and private sector in China," he added.
Later, the August Westpac-MI Leading Index fell 0.26 point to 97.49.
Overnight, U.S. stocks rallied sharply on Tuesday reversing territory midway through the session, ahead of the start of a critical two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Wednesday.
Upon the completion of its September monetary policy meeting on Thursday, the Federal Reserve could raise its benchmark Fed Funds Rate for the first time in nine years. The rate, which banks use to lend to other institutions on overnight loans, has remained at its current level between zero and 0.25% since December, 2008. A rate hike above its zero-bound level is generally viewed as bearish for equities, at least in the short run.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NASDAQ Composite index each rose by more than 1% during Tuesday's session, while the S&P 500 Composite index also posted considerable gains on a bullish day for the major indices. The Dow gained 228.89 or 1.40% to 16,599.85 on Tuesday to emerge from correction territory for the first time this month. The NASDAQ also added 54.76 or 1.14% to 4,860.52, amid strong gains among large-cap stocks.
The S&P 500, meanwhile, rose 25.06 or 1.28% to 1,978.09, as all 10 sectors closed in the green. Stocks in the Industrials, Consumer Goods and Telecommunications industries led, each gaining more than 1.25% on the session.