Australian shares jumped 1% on Thursday, rebounding from heavy losses suffered earlier in the week, as energy and mining firms gained on strong commodity prices, even as Wall Street ended lower overnight on the US central bank's hawkish stance.
The S&P/ASX 200 index was up 1.1% at 7,042.1, as of 2338 GMT, marking its best intraday gain in nearly three weeks. The benchmark, which was closed for trading on Wednesday, lost 5.2% in the prior three sessions.
Local energy sector soared 3.7% - biggest percentage boost to the benchmark - as oil prices breached the $90 a barrel level for the first time in seven years on the back of tight supply and rising political tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
That helped heavyweights Woodside Petroleum and Santos advance about 4% each. Beach Energy jumped 7.1% while Origin Energy added 3%.
Heavyweight mining sector climbed 2.1% to snap a three-day losing streak, marking its best intraday gain in a week, as iron ore futures in top steel producer China jumped more than 3% on Wednesday amid supply concerns.
Top global miners BHP Group, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group gained between 0.5% and 4%, with Rio marking its best day in two weeks.
Meanwhile, investors looked past the US Federal Reserve's indication from its meeting overnight that it would likely hike interest rates in March and reaffirmed its plans to end bond purchase program the same month.
"The Fed has cut nothing and continues to build its balance sheet (no tapering yet). No panic tightening here. No over-reaction, despite the market talk. Relief for risk assets leaves room for market rates to re-test higher," analysts at Dutch-bank ING said in a note.
Australian banking stocks put on 2%, while tech stocks erased early gains to decline 0.6%.
New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index gained 0.2% to 12,204.48.
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