Shares in much of Asia rose on Thursday afternoon following an overnight surge in stocks on Wall Street.

Japan's Nikkei 225, which has veered in and then out of bear market territory this week, surged 3.88 percent on the day to close at 20,077.62 while the Topix jumped 4.90 percent to finish its trading day at 1,501.63 as the two indexes climbed for the second-straight day after their Christmas Day tumble.

Shares of Japan Display surged 5.88 percent on the back of a report that the iPhone XR comprised 32 percent of Apple's iPhone sales in the U.S. in the 30 days after its release. Japan Display supplies the liquid crystal display panels used in the iPhone XR.

In Australia, the rose 1.88 percent to close at 5,597.2, with all sectors seeing gains.

Of note, the energy sector Down Under jumped 3.2 percent, with shares of oil-related companies advancing. Santos rose 2.67 percent, Woodside Petroleum gained 4.16 percent and Beach Energy climbed up by 1.14 percent.

Similar gains were seen in Japan, where Inpex advanced 4.28 percent, JXTG jumped 8.06 percent, Fuji Oil gained 5.04 percent and Japan Petroleum Exploration soared 6.08 percent.

Those moves came on the back of a strong rebound in oil prices on Wednesday, which saw both U.S. and international benchmark Brent crude post their largest one-day increase since Nov. 30, 2016, when OPEC signed a landmark agreement to cut production.

However, both U.S. and Brent crude pared some of Wednesday's big gains in Thursday's afternoon Asian trading hours. The U.S. crude futures contract slipped 0.3 percent to $46.08 per barrel while the Brent crude futures contract also shed 0.18 percent to $54.37 per barrel.

South Korea's Kospi closed largely flat at 2,028.44.