The Asia-Pacific equity markets were higher on Thursday as investors reacted to the latest Federal Reserve monetary policy decision. The Fed delivered an aggressive half percentage point rate cut on Wednesday for its first-rate reduction in four years.

The Federal Reserve’s shift to interest-rate cuts bodes well for Asian assets as many are underowned, and have better earnings prospects and more room to benefit from easing than their global peers.

With likely weakness in the US dollar, it allows Asian central banks to ease monetary policy, said one observer. Read more at straitstimes.com.