Stocks in Asia were mixed on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve signaled overnight that it would not raise interest rates in 2020.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan gained 0.14% to close at 23,424.81 while the Topix index finished its trading day at 1,712.83. South Korea's Kospi closed 1.51% higher at 2,137.35, as shares of industry heavyweight Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix surged more than 2.5% each.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index jumped 1.35%, as of its final hour of trading, with shares of Chinese tech juggernaut Tencent surging 3.06%. Life insurer AIA also saw its stock gain 2.31%.
Shares in mainland China were lower on the day. The Shanghai composite shed 0.3% to about 2,915.70 while the Shenzhen component fell 0.17% to 9,836.23. The Shenzhen composite declined 0.193% to approximately 1,636.33.
Meanwhile, shares in Australia declined on the day, with the S&P/ASX 200 slipping 0.65% to 6,708.80.
Overall, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index was 0.96% higher.
The moves regionally came as the Fed left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, a decision that was largely anticipated — capping a year where the U.S. central bank cut its benchmark rate three times. The Fed also indicated it does not expect any policy changes through at least 2020.
Stocks stateside closed fractionally higher overnight following the Fed's decision on interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 29.58 points to 27,911.30. The S&P 500 added 0.3% to 3,141.63 while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.4% to 8,654.05.
Meanwhile, developments on U.S.-China trade continued to be monitored ahead of Sunday, when additional tariffs on Chinese exports to the U.S. are set to kick in.
"It seems like the baseline is for an extension but not a deal, and certainly not a tariff rollback," Alex Wolf, head of Asia investment strategy at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Thursday.
"It seems like the market is taking a fairly benign view of that deadline, of course there are worries but my guess would be that ... there's more of an assumption that those will be extended, that those will not be put in place than there are that they will be," Wolf said.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 97.096 after touching highs above 97.5 yesterday.
The Japanese yen traded at 108.61 against the dollar after touching an earlier high of 108.44. The Australian dollar was at $0.6882 after rising from levels below $0.681 in the previous session.
Oil prices rose in the afternoon of Asian trading hours. The international benchmark Brent crude futures contract added 0.44% to $64.00 per barrel while U.S. crude futures gained 0.2% to $58.88 per barrel.