Most Asian markets rose Thursday as the majority of them returned from the Chinese Lunar New Year break on an optimistic note, with inflation slowing and central banks hinting at a lighter approach to tackling prices.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) led the way again, hitting an 11-month high, boosted by hopes that China's optimization of COVID-19 policy will fuel a strong recovery this year.

But uneven earnings from tech giants largely kept sentiment in check and saw Wall Street end on a soft note, with the Nasdaq in the red.

Traders are now awaiting the release of U.S. growth data on Thursday and the Federal Reserve's preferred gauge of inflation on Friday.

Still, Asia continued to outperform after a strong start to the year.

Next week, the Federal Reserve will make its latest policy decision since slowing its pace of rate hikes in December, after four straight 75-basis-point increases.

Speculation has been building in recent weeks that the bank could take its foot off the pedal as data points to inflation coming down quicker than expected and other indicators suggest last year's tightening was taking hold in the economy.

And while there remains some concern that the world's top economy could tip into recession, there is growing hope it can achieve what is being called soft landing.

The Hong Kong SAR stock market jumped 2 percent Thursday – to its highest level since early March – while Singapore, Wellington and Jakarta were also up.

Seoul gained more than 1 percent as data showed South Korea's economy shrank in October-December – for the first time since the second quarter of 2020 – giving the central bank room to tone down its pace of rate hikes.

London opened on the front foot along with Paris and Frankfurt. But Tokyo, Manila and Bangkok fell. Shanghai was closed for the holiday.

SPI Asset Management's Stephen Innes was upbeat about the outlook for equities.

"Once we chop through the cudgel of earnings reports, one can reasonably expect the buyback tailwind to resume in force come February," he said in a commentary.

"The opportunity set in non-U.S. markets continues to look more attractive. And while China remains the faster horse in the race, still after a run of resilient activity data, lower gas prices, easier financial conditions and earlier China reopening, investors should take note of the solid non-recessionary vibes emanating from Europe."

Ricky Tang at Value Partners Group added, "On the economic front, the Chinese government has emphasized that the top priority for 2023 is to boost economic growth, so it is possible for the government to introduce more policies to support the economy in the coming months."

(Source: AFP with edits)