Nikkei leads gains in Asia, touching new 15-year peak

Asian shares advanced early Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 scaling a new 15-year high, on the back of gains offshore and encouraging Greece headlines.

Overnight, Wall Street ended sharply higher, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq logging a record high close, amid a slight pause in recent climbs in the dollar and bond yields. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 settled up 0.67 and 0.92 percent, respectively.

European stocks also rallied following news that debt-stricken Greece has started crafting an agreement with its international bailout
Nikkei rises 0.5%

Japan's benchmark index touched a fresh 15-year high of 20,575 and was on course to extend a nine-session winning streak as the dollar-yen hovered near an eight-year peak of 124.07 clinched overnight. In early Asian trade, the greenback bought 123.70 yen.

ASX adds 0.1%

Australia's S&P ASX 200 index edged up ahead of the release of capital expenditure data. According to a Reuters poll, business capex is expected to fall 2.4 percent in the first quarter as the country's mining boom has likely run its course.

Miners are mostly higher as iron ore prices extended gains to $62.60 a tonne; Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals opened up 0.6 and 0.9 percent, respectively, but BHP Billiton shed 0.3 percent.

However, energy counters fell in tandem with softer oil prices overnight. Woodside Petroleum and Santos declined nearly 1 percent each.
Meanwhile, the Australian dollar ticked up 0.1 percent to $0.7731, slightly off the five-week low of $0.7721 attained overnight.

Kospi gains 0.3%

South Korea's Kospi index rebounded from a one-week closing low early Thursday. The Seoul bourse was the region's biggest loser in the previous session with a slump of 1.7 percent, marking its largest single-day fall in nearly five months.

Brokerage houses led the charge in early trade; Samsung Securities and Daewoo Securities opened up 1.5 and 1.4 percent, respectively, while Hyundai Securities rose 1.1 percent.