Investing.com - Asian shares gained solidly on Wednesday as investors saw a resolution to Greece's current debt woes ahead.
The Nikkei 225 rose 0.60%, while the Shanghai Composite was up 0.84% and the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.27%.
Greece's left-wing government expressed confidence on Tuesday that parliament would approve a debt deal with lenders, despite an angry reaction from some of its own lawmakers, Reuters reported.
Concessions offered by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, including hikes to tax and pension contributions, garnered a cautious welcome from euro zone leaders but triggered a furious reaction from some leftists in the ruling Syriza party.
Fresh talks were scheduled on Thursday, leaving just 48 hours for a detailed agreement to be finalized.
Elsewhere, the benefits of the Bank of Japan's aggressive easing are being outweighed by side effects, one board member said in the minutes of the May released Wednesday.
Board member Takahide Kiuchi in particular has dissented at recent board meetings and called for a cut in outright annual government bond purchases to Y45 trillion from Y80 trillion now.
At the May meeting, the board decided by an 8 to 1 vote to leave the bank's policy target unchanged while revising up its economic assessment slightly and warning about the downside risk from Europe's low growth and inflation.
In the minutes, there was also concern raised about a slowdown in China and whether inflation expectations overall would rise.
At the same time of the minutes, Japan release May service producer prices, which rose 0.6% year-on-year, down slightly from an 0.7% gain in April.
Overnight, U.S. stocks were higher after the close on Tuesday, as gains in the Telecoms, Oil & Gas and Financials sectors led shares higher.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.13%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.06%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.12%.