S&P 500 record, Japan trade, Tankan

Hong Kong markets climbed more than 2% to lead gains in Asia on Wednesday, powered by energy and basic material stocks. Mainland China’s CSI 300, however, dipped 0.56%.

Stock markets in the region mostly rose after key U.S. benchmark indexes hit fresh highs overnight as artificial intelligence chip firm Nvidia overtook Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable public company.

Shares of the chipmaker jumped 3.5% overnight on Wall Street and have surged 174% since the beginning of the year.

Investors in Asia assessed Japan’s trade data for May, with exports beating expectations. Exports grew 13.5% year on year compared with a 13% increase expected by economists polled by Reuters. Imports growth of 9.5%, however, missed expectations of a 10.4% increase.

Investors also digested the Reuters Tankan index reading which showed business confidence among large Japanese manufacturers fell to +6 from +9 in May. On the flip side, business confidence among non-manufacturers climbed to +31 from +26 in May.

The Tankan measures business confidence among Japanese corporations, and a positive figure means optimists outnumber pessimists and vice versa.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was marginally lower, while the broad-based Topix rose 0.25%.

South Korea’s Kospi gained almost 1%, powered by a 1.6% gain in heavyweight Samsung Electronics.

LG Electronics jumped 6%, while SK Hynix reversed earlier gains and fell 0.43%. The small-cap Kosdaq rose marginally.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission said it would publish new measures to deepen the reform of Shanghai’s tech-heavy STAR market, according to a Reuters report.

CSRC chairman Wu Qing said the commission will strengthen regulation of high-frequency trading and over-the-counter derivatives.

The Taiwan Weighted Index reached new highs, gaining 1.99% to cross the 23,000 mark as heavyweights Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp, rose 2.27% and 4.03%, respectively.

India’s Nifty 50 dipped 0.28% after hitting a fresh high at the start of the trading day.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.24%.

Overnight in the U.S., the broad market S&P 500 advanced 0.25% to close at a record 5,487.03, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.03%, also closing at a fresh high of 17,862.23. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.15%.

— CNBC’s Samantha Subin and Alex Harring contributed to this report.