Most of the Asian markets rose Wednesday amid investor hopes that the Bank of Japan would announce stimulus measures to bolster the country's economic growth.

Chinese Shanghai Composite rose 0.09 percent or 1.88 points to 2061.42. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.27 percent or 56.06 points to 20657.99. Among major gainers were China Mobile Ltd (1.26 percent) and PetroChina Co Ltd (1.11 percent).

South Korea's KOSPI Composite Index fell 0.46 percent or 9.23 points to 1995.73. Shares of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd dropped 0.53 percent and those of Hyundai Motor Company declined 1.61 percent.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average was up 0.24 percent or 21.75 points to 9145.52. Among major gainers were Ricoh Co Ltd (3.22 percent), Dentsu Inc (2.99 percent) and Kobe Steel Ltd (2.86 percent).

India's equity markets were closed Wednesday for public holiday.

The BoJ will announce its policy decision later in the day. Investors feel that easing measures should be implemented to regain the growth momentum of the Japanese economy, which has been affected by the soft global demand and the worsening crisis in the euro zone.

The central bank left monetary policy unchanged at its August meeting, suggesting that the economy is picking up moderately despite the growing body of evidence to the contrary. First of all, Japan's economy grew 0.3 percent in the second quarter, down from 1.2 percent in the first three months of the year. The data also showed that the economy grew at an annualized rate of 1.4 percent in the April-June quarter, down from 5.5 percent in the previous quarter.

Market players hope that the stimulus measures announced by the central banks in the U.S. and the Europe this month will encourage the BoJ to take necessary steps.

Meanwhile, the intensifying tensions between China and Japan over the East China Sea islands claimed by both countries continue to worry the investors. Market players are concerned that the dispute between the world's second and third largest economies could further weaken the global economic growth already affected by the euro zone crisis.

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