Stocks in Asia were broadly higher on Wednesday following a bounce on Wall Street overnight on strong U.S. earnings.

The mainland Chinese markets saw a bounce in the afternoon to close higher, with the Shanghai composite advancing by 0.6 percent at around 2,561.61 while the Shenzhen composite gained 0.81 percent at approximately 1,266.55.

China trimmed its holdings of U.S. Treasurys in August by about $6 billion, to the lowest level since June 2017. China's holdings of Treasury bills, notes and bonds fell to $1.165 trillion, from $1.171 trillion in July, according to U.S. Treasury data.

In Japan, the advanced by 1.29 percent to close at 22,841.12, while the Topix index gained 1.54 percent to end the trading day at 1,713.87, with most sectors still trending up.

Shares of Softbank shed some of their earlier gains but closed 2.13 percent higher after the company's Chief Operating Officer Marcelo Claure said it was "anxiously looking" at developments related to the disappearance of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Softbank has close ties to the Saudi administration, with a significant proportion of its investment capital stemming from the country.

In South Korea, the Kospi advanced by 1.04 percent to close at 2,167.51, with shares of industry heavyweight Samsung Electronics seeing gains of 1.26 percent.

The ASX 200 also gained 1.18 percent to close at 5,939.1, with most sectors higher — the energy subindex was up by 0.64 percent, while the heavily weighted financials industry saw a gain of 1.38 percent.

Hong Kong's stock market is closed for a public holiday.