Asian markets ended mixed on Wednesday, losing some of the optimism spurred from the Dow Jones Industrials hitting a new record close overnight just shy of the psychological 20,000-point level.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 Index fell 50.04 points, or 0.3%, to 19,444.19
The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong recovered 80.74 points, or 0.4%, to 21,809.80
Australian markets strengthened, led by gains in its materials sub-index, which was up 1.2% and its all ordinaries gold sub-index, which gained 1.4%.
Shares of Bellamy's Australia, suspended for the past week, were in the news on Wednesday as the company requested the suspension to extend for another three weeks, amid talks with key suppliers and manufacturers. Bellamy last traded at 6.68 Australian dollars ($4.86 U.S.) per share.
Taiwanese multi-national hardware and electronics company Acer fell 0.8% to 13.20 Taiwanese dollars per share. The company announced late Tuesday that it would put its Indian smartphone business on hold due to the recent demonetization policy and that it plans to buy back shares worth T$35.4 billion ($1.1 billion U.S).
The South Korea-listed Samsung Securities plunged 4.9% to 31,950 won on news that it would issue new shares worth 345 billion won ($296.28 million U.S).
Against the U.S. dollar, the yen was at 117.38 while the Australian dollar fetched $0.7257. The Singapore dollar was at 1.4433 against the greenback as of mid-afternoon local time, after falling to its weakest since 2009 earlier at 1.4506.
In other markets
In Shanghai, the CSI 300 regained 29.47 points, or 0.9%, to 3,338.54
In Korea, the Kospi lost 3.98 points, or 0.2%, at 2,037.96
The Straits Times Index in Singapore fell 1.77 points to 2,911.31
In Taiwan, the Taiex Index shed 38.15 points, or 0.4%, to 9,204.26
The NZX 50 added 13.09 points, or 0.2%, at 6,802.76
Australia's ASX 200 gained 22.4 points, or 0.4%, at 5,613.47
