China unexpectedly left benchmark lending rates unchanged at the monthly fixing on Friday, confounding market expectations that were primed for a move after the Federal Reserve delivered an outsized interest rate cut earlier this week.

Asian equity markets were nearly universally higher overnight after the US Fed cut rates by 0.50%, despite a lackluster reaction on Wall Street.

Asian markets have forged higher after the Federal Reserve kicked off its efforts to prevent a recession in the U.S. with a bigger-than-usual cut to interest rates