Investing.com - Asian shares gained on Wednesday led by Tokyo with investors taking a cue from Wall Street.
The Nikkei 225 jumped 1.11% even as Toshiba shares dropped 10.4% in Tokyo after the company said it expected to book a $6.3 billion hit to its U.S. nuclear unit and might sell more of its prized flash-memory chip business to urgently raise funds. But on the deal side, internet and telecom giant SoftBank announced a $3.3 billion cash acquisition of asset manager Fortress Investment Group. SoftBank shares climbed 1.16%.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index added 1.26%, while the Shanghai composite was up 0.25%. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 climbed 1.03% with banks higher.
Overnight, U.S. stocks were higher after the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Financials, Healthcare and Consumer Services sectors led shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.45% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index added 0.40%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.32%.