Asia report: Markets rise after Wall Street rally

Australian and Japanese markets racked up gains on Wednesday after technology companies spurred on Wall Street and President Trump's State of the Union address failed to spark a major reaction from investors.

With the majority of the region's main markets closed, Japan and Australia profited off of the overnight rally in US markets, which was supported by strong corporate earnings and extended the benchmark S&P 500 index’s winning streak to five days, and few surprises from Trump's address.

Dean Popplewell, vice president of market analysis at Oanda, said: "Even US stock futures seem unfazed by President Trump’s State of the Union address last night, which has proved fairly uneventful. Nevertheless, the big dollar has extended its gains alongside US Treasuries. Asia overnight saw another muted session, with trading rested mostly by the Lunar New Year holidays."

Markets in China, Hong Kong and South Korea remained closed for Lunar New Year celebrations, while New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 was closed as the nation celebrates Waitangi Day.

Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 0.14% at 20,874.06, while the yen was up 0.20% against the US dollar at JPY109.74.

Major movers on the index included Yamaha Corp and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, which shot upwards by almost 12.7% and 9.2% respectively, along with videogame and electronics giants Nintendo and Sony, which dropped by 5.55% and 3.93% respectively.

Brent Crude was down 0.73% at $61.53, while WTI dropped by 0.77% to $53.27.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.34% at 6,026.51 even as its 'big four' banks each receded by between 1% and 2% having surged on Tuesday after escaping new regulatory measures.

The information technology sector pushed the index upward after Computershare and Xero, which dominate the sector, posted gains of 2.5% and 2.7%, while mining heavyweight BHP assisted with a 1.7% gain.

However, the Australian dollar tanked after comments from Royal Bank of Australia governor Lowe drive the currency lower in anticipation of a potential rate cut in the future.

The Australian dollar was down 1.47% against the greenback at AU$1.40, while the New Zealand dollar was down 0.68% at NZ$1.46.