The Japanese stock market is rising on Wednesday following the overnight gains on Wall Street amid upbeat earnings results from major companies and on hopes of a possible Brexit deal.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is advancing 308.35 points or 1.39 percent to 22,515.56, after touching a high of 22,615.47 in early trades.
The major exporters are higher on a weaker yen. Mitsubishi Electric is gaining more than 3 percent, Panasonic is rising almost 2 percent Sony is adding 0.6 percent and Canon is up 0.5 percent.
In the tech space, Advantest is gaining more than 4 percent and Tokyo Electron is higher by more than 1 percent. Among auto stocks, Toyota Motor is adding 1 percent and Honda Motor is advancing almost 1 percent.
Market heavyweight SoftBank is up 0.5 percent and Fast Retailing is higher by almost 4 percent.
In the oil sector, Inpex is declining almost 1 percent and Japan Petroleum is down 0.5 percent after crude oil prices extended losses to a second session overnight.
Among the other major gainers, Cyberagent is gaining almost 5 percent, Yaskawa Electric is rising more than 4 percent and Tokai Carbon is higher by 4 percent.
On the flip side, Tokyo Gas is losing more than 2 percent.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the upper 108 yen-range on Wednesday.
On Wall Street, stocks closed sharply higher as the spotlight shifted to corporate earnings news, with upbeat results from some big-name companies such as JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Johnson & Johnson generating considerable buying interest.
The Dow jumped 237.44 points or 0.9 percent to 27,024.80, the Nasdaq soared 100.06 points or 1.2 percent to 8,148.71 and the S&P 500 surged up 29.53 points or 1 percent to 2,995.68.
The European markets also moved mostly higher on Tuesday, with the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index surging up by 1.2 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively. However, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index bucked the uptrend and closed just below the unchanged.
Crude oil prices declined on Tuesday, extending losses from the previous session amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand on the back of recent weak trade data from China and uncertainty about U.S.-China trade negotiations. WTI crude for November ended down $0.78 or 1.5 percent at $52.81 a barrel.
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