Tech-heavy Asian bourses gained on Wednesday after a series of steep losses, amid some bargain buying in the sector

Most Asian stocks edged higher on Wednesday, aided by a mild recovery in the battered technology sector.

Tech-heavy Asian bourses gained on Wednesday after a series of steep losses, amid some bargain buying in the sector.

KOSPI rose 0.8%, while Hang Seng index added 0.1%.

Tech benefited from some bargain buying after doubts over artificial intelligence sparked deep losses in the sector over the past week. South Korea was by far the worst-hit by this trade, while Hong Kong also nursed losses.

Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 index increased 0.6%, while the Shanghai Composite advanced 0.2% as investors awaited more fiscal stimulus from Beijing, especially following a string of weak economic prints for November.

ASX 200 declined 0.4%, while Straits Times index dropped 0.3% even as data showed the country’s non-oil exports increased in November.

Japanese markets gained marginally on Wednesday, aided by some optimism over the economy following robust trade data for November. A major positive point was exports growing much more than expected, indicating that overseas demand was likely to support the economy in the current quarter.

The Nikkei 225 gained 0.3%, while the broader TOPIX index was flat.

But bigger gains in Japanese markets were limited by caution before a Bank of Japan meeting, with analysts predicting that the central bank will raise interest rates at the conclusion of a two-day meeting on Friday.

Bets on a hike were fuelled chiefly by sustained weakness in the yen and increasingly sticky Japanese inflation, the latter of which has been a major weight on the economy.