SINGAPORE — Shares in Japan led gains in Asia-Pacific during Wednesday morning trade, as investors monitored oil prices and continued to assess the outlook for U.S. Federal Reserve monetary policy.

The Nikkei 225As shares rose by 2.59% SoftBank Group jumped 8.03%. Topix Index rose 1.98%

Hong Kong’s shares include XiaomiAfter the company announced Tuesday that it will repurchase shares on the open market at an aggregate of 10 billion Hong Kong dollar ($1.28billion), the stock surged by 5.49%. Xiaomi announced Tuesday a 21% increase in revenue for its fourth quarter.

Chinese tech giant shares TencentAlso, the stock rose 1.49% ahead of its quarterly and annual results announcement due later Wednesday.

The wider Hang Seng indexHong Kong saw an increase of 0.58%.

Stocks in China lag behind the wider region. Shanghai compositeFractionally lower than the Shenzhen component declining around 0.1%.

South Korea KospiGained 0.75% The 0.75% was achieved in Australia. S&P/ASX 200It grew by 0.42%

The MSCI’s largest index of Asia-Pacific shares, outside Japan, traded at 0.55% more.

The U.S. dollar indexAfter a recent decline from above 98.8,, the metric that tracks the greenback against its peers was at 98.494.

The Japanese yenIt traded at 120.91 USD, weaker than yesterday’s levels of 120.91 against the greenback. The Australian dollarThe price was 0.74533, largely holding onto gains from yesterday’s increase of $0.738.