SYDNEY, NSW, Australia - Stocks in Asia moved sharply higher on Tuesday despite markets in Hong Kong and Shanghai being closed for public holidays.

"It feels short term it's a little bit oversold," Geoff Wilson, chief investment officer at Wilson Asset Management in Sydney, told Reuters Thomson Tuesday.

"Is this the bottom? It's nearly impossible to pick the bottom, but I don't think so," he said.

The Australian All Ordinaries was the star Tuesday, with the key index surging 248.90 points or 3.74 percent to 6,905.30. What was driving the Aussie market Tuesday was an announcement earlier in the day that the Reserve Bank of Australia was hiking official interest rates by 25 basis points, well below expectations for a 50 basis points hike.

The move caught markets by surprise, sending all the major indices higher and the Australian dollar lower.

In New Zealand, the S&P/NZX 50 jumped 130.58 points or 1.19 percent to 11,090.03.

Japan's Nikkei 225 gained a hefty 773.43 points or 2.95 percent to 26,989.21.

In South Korea, the Kospi Composite added 54.55 points or 2.53 percent to 2,210.04.

The euro firmed to 0.9863. The British pound was in demand at 1.1254. The Japanese yen inched lower to 144.74. The Swiss franc was little changed at 0.9903.

The Australian dollar was unchanged at around 0.6513 at the Sydney close Tuesday, having recovered from an earlier low of 0.6450 following the RBA decision.

The New Zealand dollar was stronger at 0.5728. The Canadian dollar jumped to 1.3587.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrials surged 765.38 points or 2.66 percent to 29,490.89.

The Tech-laden Nasdaq Composite gained 239.82 points or 2.27 percent to 10,815.43.

The Standard and Poor's 500 added 92.81 points or 2.59 percent to 3,678.43.