Asian markets mostly edged higher on Wednesday, though Japanese stocks retreated after a sharp gain in the previous session.
Corporate earnings were the focus in Australia.
The Nikkei ended down 0.5% at 14766.53, pulling back from a sharp 3.1% rise in the previous session that was sparked by a surprise move by the Bank of Japan. Stocks in Tokyo had enjoyed their best daily performance since August on Tuesday after the central bank took steps to encourage bank lending, raising expectations of looser monetary policy in the future.
Also in Tokyo, the yen strengthened during Asia trade, another sign that the positive sentiment created by the Bank of Japan didn?t survive into a second session. The dollar was last trading at ?102.09, after gaining 0.4% on Tuesday, compared with ?102.35 late Tuesday in New York.
In the rest of the region, stocks were mixed as a broad recovery from a global selloff earlier in the month took pause. The next potential catalyst for the region could come Thursday, when investors will get a chance to react to Chinese preliminary manufacturing data for February ? a key economic indicator that has resulted in sharp market moves in recent months.
South Korea?s Kospi fell 0.2% to 1942.93 and Singapore?s Straits Times Index was up 0.5% late in Asia. In China, Hong Kong?s Hang Seng Index was up 0.3% at 22664.52, while the Shanghai Composite added 1.1% to 2142.55 as sentiment picked up ahead of the National People?s Congress in early March on expectations of market-positive policy decisions.
Australia?s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.3% to 5408.20 as stocks in Sydney reacted to more earnings reports.
At the forefront in Sydney was Fortescue Metals Group, which fell 2.3% after the world?s fourth largest iron-ore miner reported its profit more than tripled in its first fiscal half as both sales and iron-ore prices improved. Despite the positive results, the company?s stock fell, after having risen 6.4% over the three sessions prior to the announcement.
Shares in Brambles added 2.5%, after the world?s largest supplier of wooden pallets, used for transporting goods, reported a sharp rise in half-year profit, helped by a demerger of its documents storage and destruction business.
Shares in Woodside Petroleum ??however, ???fell 0.3% after the oil company posted a 41% slide in full-year profit after a project outage hit its oil production volumes. Insurer Suncorp Group ?lost ?2.8% after the company reported a 4.5% fall in its first-half profit, as its general insurance business was hit by rising claims.
Source MarketWatch
