Asian shares lifted to 10-year high cheered by Wall St. record finishes

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.1 percent, hovering near their highest since June 2015. Early Asian stock markets such as New Zealand and South Korea were key gainers (Pedestrians walk in front of a display flashing numbers of the Nikkei key index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo on April 25, 2017 - AFP)

TOKYO: Asian shares inched up to a 10-year high on Wednesday, cheered by record highs on Wall Street, while the dollar's rise against the yen helped boost Japanese shares.

The S&P 500 <.SPX>, Dow Jones industrials <.DJI> and Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> all marked record finishes as investors' concerns faded about North Korean tensions as well as the impact of Hurricane Irma.[.N]

Gains were kept in check, however, by a decline in shares of Apple Inc after it unveiled its newest line of iPhones. Apple fell 0.6 percent but pared some losses in afterhours trade.

The new iPhone's sales will have repercussions beyond Apple for many suppliers as well as its rivals.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was slightly higher in early trade, while Japan's Nikkei stock index added 0.4 percent to a one-month high, getting a tailwind from a weaker yen.

"The Nikkei is not rising on fundamentals at the moment, but rather on supply and demand moves, as the weaker yen prompts investors to cover short positions" that they took during recent bouts of risk aversion, said Yutaka Miura, a senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities.

"Lately, we have seen some reactive moves in early trading, and then stabilization or even profit-taking later in the session, and today might be the same," Miura said.

The dollar was steady on the day at 110.06 yen , well above last Friday's 10-month low of 107.32 plumbed when Hurricane Irma loomed and investors braced for the possibility of another missile or nuclear test to mark North Korea's founding day on Sept. 9.

The yen tends to benefit during times of economic and political uncertainty due to Japan's net creditor nation status, and the expectation that Japanese investors would repatriate assets during times of crisis.

The euro was up 0.1 percent at $1.1973 , while the dollar index <.DXY> was steady at 91.860, well above Friday's 2-1/2-year low of 91.011.

Crude oil futures were mixed after rising on Tuesday, when OPEC forecast higher demand in 2018 and Russia and Venezuela confirmed their commitment to a production-cutting deal to reduce the global crude glut. [O/R]

Brent crude edged down 0.1 percent to $54.21 per barrel, while U.S. crude added 0.2 percent to $48.30. - Reuters