Light rally in Asia before Fed storm

Asian markets kicked off Wednesday with a light rally ahead of this week's, in fact this year's, most awaited event - the Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

Overnight, the US released some important data, including retail sales, manufacturing, and industrial production, which was broadly negative.

Core retail sales rose only 0.1% month-on-month in August, missing the 0.2% gain forecast by markets, however, July's retail sales growth was revised up from 0.4% to 0.6%. US industrial production fell 0.4% month-on-month in August, also missing forecasts, but again, upward revisions were made to July's data. The Empire State Manufacturing index was at -14.7 in September, much worse than the predicted reading of -0.5.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.87% to 18,183.00 points within the first hour of trade, while Tokyo's broader Topix gauge jumped 0.80% to 1,473.98 points.

Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng index advanced 1.12% to 21,696.38 points at the opening bell, and mainland China's benchmark Shanghai Composite grew 0.31% to 3,014.40 points at the same time.

Korea's benchmark Kospi index surged 1.42% to 1,965.09 points this morning in Seoul, with Samsung Electronics rallying 1.6%.

The benchmark Australian S&P/ASX 200 index rallied 1.21% to 5,079.10 points in Sydney, with miners and banks leading the charge.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index rose 0.27% to 5,667.69 points this afternoon in Wellington. New Zealand's current account recorded a deficit of $1.22 billion in the June quarter, following a revised surplus of $821 million in the first quarter. The current account deficit was $8.3 billion for the year ended June 2015, or 3.5% of GDP, rising from 3.4% of GDP in the March quarter, after the first quarter was revised down from 3.6%.

Thursday's Federal Open Market Committee statement could see the first US interest rate hike in almost a decade, however, there is still much debate whether or not September 17 will be the date.