Asian shares rise, as Chinese markets back open to upbeat HSBC flash PMI

Asian shares gained overall on Wednesday with China markets back open and upbeat HSBC China flash manufacturing estimates for February.

The HSBC China February flash manufacturing PMI surged to 50.1, well above the expected drop to 49.5 and up from January's final 49.7.

"Domestic demand firmed while new export orders contracted for the first time since April 2014. Both input and output prices remain in contraction," said Qu Hongbin, Chief Economist, China and joint head of Asian economic research at HSBC.

"Today's data point to a marginal improvement in the Chinese manufacturing sector going into the Chinese New Year period in February. However, domestic economic activity is likely to remain sluggish and external demand looks uncertain. We believe more policy easing is still warranted at the current stage to support growth."

The Nikkei 225 rose 0.14% while the Shanghai Composite gained 0.13% and the Hang Seng was up 0.32%.

U.S. stocks were higher overnight after the close on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 0.51% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.28%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.14%.

Overnight, markets were supported after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen sounded more hawkish than expected in her prepared remarks to the Senate Banking Committee.

Fed Chair Yellen said to the Senate Banking Committee that the central bank will change its forward guidance in an effort to increase the Fed's flexibility and mute any potential market reaction before beginning to hike rates. According to Yellen, the central bank will first drop the word "patient" from its statement. However, that does not mean that a rate hike will automatically follow in a couple of meetings.

The Fed will consider interest rate hikes "on a meeting by meeting basis," if economic conditions continue to improve, as the Committee anticipates.