Asia markets rally led by Japan as China closes for holiday

Asian markets had a solid start on Thursday, following a strong lead in US markets where the S&P500 closed almost 2% higher.

Japanese equities were trading almost unanimously higher on Thursday morning, with the weaker yen helping out exporters' stocks and investors embracing risk as China's volatile equity markets closed for the rest of the week.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index rallied 1.72% to 18,406.08 points within the first hour of trade, with almost all 225 stocks on the index trading with gains, while Tokyo's broader Topix gauge jumped 2.02% to 1,495.52 points.

China's markets were closed on Thursday for Victory Day, and are set to open again on Monday.

Korea's benchmark Kospi index jumped 0.42% to 1,923.29 points this morning in Seoul.

The benchmark Australian S&P/ASX 200 index shed early gains to trade 0.79% lower at 5,061.30 points in Sydney, as retailers traded with sharp losses ahead of July retail data and bank reversed early gains to trade lower.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index was up 0.29% at 5,606.68 points this afternoon in Wellington.