On Tuesday morning, South Korea's central bank held interest rates steady for a second consecutive meeting, as expected. Gary Ng, senior economist at Natixis Corporate and Investment Bank, said Asian economies are more cautious about hiking rates as their determination to preserve growth outweighs concern over taming inflation, which is a bigger concern in the U.S. and Europe.
"I think investors are more optimistic in terms of seeing the end of the rate cycle," he added,"but whether we are already at the top - that is really the key driver of this oscillation that we see right now." Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index gained 1.4 per cent with miner Newcrest's shares jumping as much as 7.1 per cent on an improved takeover offer from Newmont, making it the top gainer on the benchmark.Shares of Chinese artificial intelligence company SenseTime surged as much as 11 per cent a day after it unveiled a series of new AI-powered products as it joins a global race to dominate the sector. SenseTime investor Alibaba itself rose as much as 3.8 per cent.