Asian markets buoyed by upbeat Fed

Asian markets rallied overnight after the Federal Reserve indicated it will not hike interest rates.

Overnight, markets took their lead from Wall Street which finished trading yesterday up 0.76% to 12,690.

Japan's Nikkei climbed 1.1%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 0.5% whilst stock markets in Singapore, Australia and Indonesia also advanced.

The global rally followed bullish comments from Fed chief Ben Bernanke who gave an upbeat assessment of the US economy.

Bernanke said he was relaxed on the threat posed by inflation and indicated no imminent loosening in monetary policy. He added he expects the US economy to grow 3.3% this year.

However, the comments sent the dollar lower, dropping yesterday 0.9% against the pound, euro and the Australian dollar on Wednesday.

All eyes will now be on European markets to see if the positive sentiment from across the Atlantic will trigger a similar rally.

London's FTSE has opened flat, up by a marginal 0.07%, or 4 points, to 6072 whilst Germany's Dax and France's Cac 40 are both up around 0.6%.