- The news of a planned makeover of Alibaba boosted demand for Chinese technology shares, causing a rise in Hong Kong equities to ripple across Asia.
- Increases in mainland and Hong Kong equities lifted a regional stock index higher for a second day. Japanese and Australian markets also rose, while US equity futures rose, effectively reversing Tuesday's drop.
- The Hang Seng Index rose more than 2%, while an index of Hong Kong's tech stocks rose more than 3%, as investors raced back to Alibaba and other huge internet businesses wounded by Beijing's crackdown during the last two years.
- Alibaba increased by 13%, Tencent increased by 3%, and Baidu increased by more than 2%. Softbank, a Japanese company that owns a substantial stake in Alibaba, saw its stock rise as much as 6.5%.
- Alibaba's gains broadly tracked an increase in its US-listed shares on Tuesday, as the e-commerce giant announced a restructuring that will result in many initial public offerings.
- The tiny uptick in Australian equities reversed an early fall after slower-than-expected inflation statistics boosted the case for the central bank to suspend its rate hikes. The local currency sank as a result of the announcement, as did government bonds.
