Asian markets headed higher today as investor appetite picked up on the debut of the world's biggest share offering this year, Japan Post. Shares of Japan Post bank and the holding firm were more than 15 per cent above their IPO prices. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 1.6 per cent at 18,990.11 in early trade. Investors are also looking ahead to employment data out of the US on Friday to see whether it will support the case for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in December. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index was up 0.9 per cent to 5,285 as the benchmark got a boost from energy shares on the rebound in oil prices. Crude oil prices surged 4 per cent overnight when US gasoline and diesel rallied following an outage on a key pipeline system. In South Korea, the Kospi index was up 0.1 per cent to 2,051.19.