By Saikat Chatterjee
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Asian shares rose from three-month lows on Wednesday as Chinese shares staged a comeback, and the dollar stayed static as investors waited for clues from a Federal Reserve meeting on when U.S. interest rates are likely to rise.
Financial spreadbetters expected Britain's FTSE 100 <.FTSE> to open 13 to 17 points higher, or as much as 0.25 percent, Germany's DAX <.GDAXI> to gain 33 to 39 points, or as much as 0.35 percent, and France's CAC 40 <.FCHI> to rise 11 to 12 points, or as much as 0.25 percent, on Wednesday.
MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> gained 0.8 percent, moving away from a three-month low on Tuesday as Chinese stocks rallied by more than 2 percent from the day's lows.
Endless wrangling over the Greek debt crisis also kept broader sentiment leaning towards safe haven assets. Both Japan's Nikkei <.N225> and Taiwan <.TW11> flipped into negative territory.
An afternoon rally in Shanghai <.SSEC> brought some brief cheer to Asian markets, cutting the decline to less than 3 percent since Tuesday from 5 percent earlier in the day, ahead of a torrent of IPOs that temporarily could tie up an astonishing 6 trillion yuan ($966.7 billion) of capital.
Hong Kong's stock market held near two-month lows.
"The China and Hong Kong stock markets appear to be ripe for some correction thanks to their expensive valuations unless we see some big stimulus measures from authorities and that will keep risk appetite on the backburner," said Grace Tam, a markets strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management in Hong Kong.
The Shanghai market had gained 50 percent since the start of the year, making Chinese stocks the world's best performers in U.S. dollar terms.
The frothiness was evident from Thomson Reuters data that showed some stock markets, such as the Shenzhen stock exchange <.SZCE>, trading far above their 10-year median average, while the price-to-earnings valuations on the MSCI Asia-ex Japan index is only slightly above its ten-year average.
On Wall Street, the Dow <.DJI> ended Tuesday up 0.64 percent, while the S&P 500 <.SPX> added 0.57 percent and the Nasdaq <.IXIC> 0.51 percent.
In Athens, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras accused Greece's creditors on Tuesday of trying to "humiliate" Greeks with more cuts as he defied a growing drumbeat of warnings that Europe was preparing for his country to leave the euro.
The public rancor left little hope that a meeting of EU finance ministers on Thursday would make any progress.
SAFETY FIRST
While markets appear to be taking the escalating eurozone crisis in its stride for now, some investors snapping up safe haven assets such as German Bunds and U.S. Treasuries.
Outflows from emerging market equity and bond funds rose last week with equity funds seeing their biggest weekly outflow since 2008, according to EPFR data compiled by BNP Paribas. Debt funds saw similar outflows as the pace of selling picked up.
The euro
The U.S. dollar index <.DXY>, which measures it against a basket of currencies edged lower.
The dollar also barely budged on the yen at 123.57
The Fed's statement is due at 1400 ET, followed half an hour later by Chair Janet Yellen's news conference where every syllable will be dissected for clues on the timing of lift off for interest rates.
There will be particular attention on the median forecast for the funds rate over 2015 which could be trimmed from the previous 0.625 percent, in line with Yellen's assurance that any tightening will be very gradual.
In commodities, oil prices were a shade firmer as plentiful output was met by strong demand, with the market waiting for U.S. storage figures later in the day.
U.S. crude futures
Gold was sidelined at $1,179.50 an ounce
(Additional reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
