Shares in Asia mostly rose on Thursday after the US Federal Reserve announced it was keeping interest rates on hold, and indicated that no more rate hikes would be coming in 2019, reports CNBC.
Mainland Chinese shares gained on the day, as the Shanghai composite advanced 0.35 per cent and the Shenzhen component added 0.706 per cent. The Shenzhen composite rose 0.767 per cent.
In South Korea, the Kospi closed 0.36 per cent higher at 2,184.88. Shares of industry heavyweight Samsung Electronics and chipmaker SK Hynix saw their stocks surge 4.09 per cent and 7.66 per cent, respectively, following an overnight earnings beat by Micron.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index, however, slipped 0.85 per cent, as of its final hour of trading.
Japanese stock markets were closed on Thursday for a holiday.
Australia's ASX 200 closed largely flat at 6,167.2 as the heavily weighted financial subindex declined 0.29 per cent, with shares of Australia's so-called Big Four banks mixed on the day.
National Australia Bank slipped 0.44 per cent and Westpac was marginally lower, while Australia and New Zealand Banking Group rose 0.38 per cent and Commonwealth Bank of Australia advanced 0.48 per cent.
The moves Down Under came after a report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed the country's jobless rate at a near eight-year low in February, according to Reuters.
"Some employment reports are more keenly anticipated than others. Today was one of those reports that felt like a big one given the ongoing disconnect between the activity data and monthly updates on the labour market. It was also the employment report that followed the weak Q4 national accounts published two weeks ago, " Gareth Aird, senior economist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said in a note following the data release.
Meanwhile, European stocks were lower Thursday afternoon.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 was down around 0.5 per cent during afternoon deals, with most sectors and major bourses in negative territory.
Europe's banking index slipped more than 1.5 per cent during lunchtime trade. Germany's two largest banks were the worst performers, amid concerns a Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank merger could pressure Deutsche to further shrink or even dispose of its US business. Shares of both banks were down around 3.0 per cent.
Looking at individual stocks, Britain's Merlin Entertainments tumbled to the bottom of the index. Shares of the company fell more than 5 per cent after Berenberg cut its stock recommendation to "sell" from "hold."
In the UK, the Bank of England (BOE) held interest rates steady on Thursday, as widely expected. The decision comes amid intensifying uncertainty over Britain's departure date from the European Union.
At around 1:00 pm London time, sterling traded down 0.5 per cent at $1.3132.
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