Asian stocks follow Wall St higher after UK calms markets

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets followed Wall Street higher Thursday after Britain's central bank moved forcefully to stop a budding financial crisis.

Market benchmarks in Hong Kong, Seoul and Sydney added more than 1%. Shanghai and Tokyo also rose. Oil prices edged lower after jumping by more than $3 per barrel the previous day.

Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 index surged 2% on Wednesday for its biggest gain in seven weeks after the Bank of England announced it would buy as many government bonds as needed to restore order to financial markets.

That helped to calm investor fears that planned British tax cuts would push up already high inflation. That had caused the value of the British pound to fall to its lowest level since the 1970s and bond prices to plunge.

“The risk of a major financial accident has been reduced in the short term,” David Chao of Invesco said in a report. “The focus will return to the still pressing macro challenges facing major economies.”

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.3% to 3,053.33 and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo gained 0.7% to 26,365.36. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong jumped 1.3% to 17,466.89.

The Kospi in Seoul gained 1.3% to 2,196.97 and Sydney’s S&P ASX 200 rose 1.8% to 6,577.70.

New Zealand and Southeast Asian markets also advanced.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose to 3,719.04 after the Bank of England said it would buy bonds over the next two weeks to stop a slide in prices. Investors were rattled by plans for 45 billion pounds ($48 billion) of tax cuts with no spending reductions.

The central bank earlier warned crumbling confidence in the economy posed a “material risk to U.K. financial stability.” The International Monetary Fund took the rare step of urging a member of the Group of Seven advanced economies to abandon its...