Asian markets bounced back on Tuesday with the central bank in Australia holding its benchmark rate steady and as market uncertainty faded following the failed referendum in Italy.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 Index recovered 85.55 points, or 0.5%, to 18,360.54
The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong spiked 169.60 points, or 0.8%, to 22,675.15
The yen strengthened against the U.S. dollar, trading at 114.11 as of late afternoon Tuesday, compared to levels around 113 earlier.
The Reserve Bank of Australia, in its last monetary policy review for the year, held its cash rate at 1.5% as expected. The Australian central bank also said that a rising Aussie dollar might pose risks to the country's economic transition, as it moves away from a resource-led economy.
Australian markets headed back up, as the Australian dollar fell to $0.7444 against the U.S. dollar
South Korean markets held onto gains, as South Korea's finance ministry said it would assign 68% of its 2017 budget to be spent in the first half of the year to boost growth.
In other news, nine of South Korea's top conglomerate leaders face a televised interrogation in parliament.
The investigation involves whether the business leaders, which including Samsung and Hyundai Motor Group, were ever pressured by President Park Gen-hye or her friend Choi Soon-sil to give money to two non-profit foundations in exchange for special treatment.
In other stock news, Genting Singapore was up 1% at $0.975 U.S. per share, and has jumped more than 9 percent since mid-November. Japan's lower house committee cleared the way to legalize casinos in the form of "integrated resorts" on Dec. 2, which could bode well for the integrated resorts development specialist.
CHINA
The CSI 300 in Shanghai dropped 10.26 points, or 0.3%, to 3,459.15.
In overnight trade, several currency data providers including Google showed that the yuan tumbled to as low as 7.49 against the U.S. dollar. The sharp devaluation of the yuan would have been an 8.8% rise of the currency pair from the onshore close of 6.883. Google confirmed that the figure was a bug and that it was fixing it.
The People's Bank of China set the yuan midpoint at 6.8575 against the dollar on Tuesday, suggesting a stronger yuan compared with a fix of 6.887 on Monday.
The yuan was trading at 6.8772 against the greenback as of late afternoon local time.
In other markets
In Korea, the Kospi regained 26.5 points, or 1.4%, at 1,989.86
The Straits Times Index in Singapore gained 6.07 points, or 0.2%, to 2,949.12
In Taiwan, the Taiex Index popped 90.11 points, or 1%, to 9,250.77
The NZX 50 gained 55.65 points, or 0.8%, at 6,910.36
Australia's ASX 200 picked up 28.25 points, or 0.5%, at 5,428.69
