Notably, oil shrugged off record high U.S. crude stockpiles as investors chose to focus on an OPEC plan to freeze production.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS added another 0.9 percent to reach a seven-week top, having surged 2.6 percent on Wednesday.
"Value is starting to snap back and some sectors that pretty recently were hanging around all-time lows are showing signs of life," said Nicholas Smith, a strategist at CLSA.
"The general updraft in oil is helping confidence as well. Investors aren't yet ready to take on a lot of risk, but they are adding to their positions."
- While the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index’s 2.4 percent surge Tuesday pushed it through its average price over the past 50 days and above the 1,950 level, the three-week rally that’s restored more than $1.5 trillion to U.S. shares hasn’t come with sufficient trading volume or lifted enough individual stocks to signal an end to the recent downturn, said Jeff deGraaf, chairman at New York-based Renaissance Macro Research LLC.
Reference: Reuters, Bloomberg
Thai
Eng