06:47 AM EDT, 04/04/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Asian stock markets gained Thursday on overnight Wall Street cues and after US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell left open the possibility of central bank rate cuts in 2024 at a presentation on Wednesday.

Markets in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan were closed on holiday.

Tokyo finished in the green, as did most other regional exchanges.

In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 opened higher and held ground, finishing up 0.8% as a modestly softer yen boosted export issues.

The Nikkei rose 321.29 to 39,773.14, as gaining issues outnumbered losers 175 to 47.

Leading the upside was chip-maker Socionext, up 17.6% after being added to the Nikkei 225 index, while airline ANA lost 1.8%.

In economic news, the Bank of Japan, in its quarterly Sakura report, downgraded assessments of seven out of Japan's nine economic regions, citing soft private consumption and weak auto production. However, the central bank also reiterated that the nation's economy as a whole has continued to recover, and that wage growth is improving.

On the other regional exchanges, the S. Korean KOSPI rose 1.3%; the Australian ASX 200 inclined 0.5%; the Singapore Straits Times Index rose 0.4%, and the Thai Set declined 0.1%. In late trading in Mumbai, the Sensex was up 0.6%.

In other news, South Korean companies Samsung and GS Engineering & Construction have won a $7.2 billion deal to expand a gas plant in Saudi Arabia, South Korean officials said on Wednesday, reported the Yonhap News Agency.

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