SYDNEY, NSW, Australia - Stocks in Asia continued the global trend on Wednesday with all the major bourses gaining ground.

This despite central banks continuing to hike interest rates. A day after the Reserve Bank of Australia lifted rates by 25 basis points, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand hiked rates there by 50 basis points. The New Zealand bank set the official rate at 3.50 percent. It was the RBNZ's eighth interest rate rise in 12 months.

"The Committee agreed it remains appropriate to continue to tighten monetary conditions at pace to maintain price stability and contribute to maximum sustainable employment," RBNZ's Governor Adrian Orr said in a statement Wednesday.

"Core consumer price inflation is too high and labour resources are scarce," Orr said.

New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 jumped 89.98 points or 0.81 percent to 11,180.01.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 advanced 128.32 points or 0.48 percent to n27,120.53.

The Australian All Ordinaries increased 125.60 points or 1.82 percent to 7,030.90.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was the stand-out in Asia, surging 992.28 points or 5.81 percent to 992.28.

In Seoul, South Korea, the Kospi Composite inched up 5.84 points or 0.26 percent to 2,215.22.

Mainland China's stock markets are closed for Golden Week.

On foreign exchange markets, the New Zealand dollar was solidly higher, trading at 0.5730 around the Sydney close.

The U.S. dollar otherwise was being bought up. The euro trickled down to 0.9964. The British pound softened to 1.1436. The Japanese yen eased to 144.15. The Swiss franc was a fraction weakert at 0.9805.

The Canadian dollar inched down to 1.2526. The Australian dollar was weaker at 0.6488. The New Zealand dollar, going against the trend, rose to 0.5744 on the back of the RBNZ's rate rise.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Nasdaq Composite led the way percentage-wise, surging 360.97 points or 3.34 percent to 11,176.41.

The Dow Jones industrials jumped 825.43 points or 2.80 percent to 30,316.32.

The Standard and Poor's 500 strengthened 112.51 points or 3.06 percent to 3,790.94.