The Australian market opened higher on Wednesday on the back of an announcement by the county's banking regulator to implement new capital requirements for financial institutions.

At 10:20 (AEST), the benchmark S&P ASX/200 index was up 35.00 points or 0.62 percent at 5,722.40, while the broader All Ordinaries index gained 32.40 points or 0.56 percent at 5,770.50.

"The big news the market is reacting to this morning is that the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), released its revision requirements on how much equity capital Australia's banks are required to hold," CMC chief market analyst Ric Spooner told Xinhua on Wednesday.

"The bottom line is APRA will require the big banks to hold 10.5 percent of capital to support their loan book and although this is pretty much what was expected, it will not be implemented until 2020, which may well give the banks to raise the money organically through profits and not investors."

"So we have seen a positive response to that with bank stocks leading the market higher."

Resource stocks on the other hand, are struggling under the weight of the soaring Aussie dollar.

The Commonwealth Bank surged 3.11 percent, Westpac Bank shot up 3.80 percent, ANZ rallied 3.91 percent and National Australia Bank lifted 3.54 percent.

BHP sank 1.85 percent, Rio Tinto dropped 1.56 percent, Fortescue Metals lost 0.93 percent and Newcrest Mining dived 1.37 percent.

Woodside Petroleum dipped 0.20 percent, Santos slid 0.33 percent and Oil Search slumped 1.86 percent.

Wesfarmers edged higher at 0.03 percent and Woolworths gained 0.23 percent.

Telstra tumbled 0.96 percent, Qantas lifted 0.82 percent, while CSL slipped 0.28 percent.