Asian stocks held ground on Tuesday though Chinese equities surged to a fresh two-and-a-half-month high as domestic funds piled into financial counters on expectations the world's second biggest economy may have turned a corner.
The Nikkei 225 Index gained 130.36 points, or 0.7%, to 19,381.44, as exporters saw fractional gains on the back of a relatively weaker yen.
The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong dropped 182.45 points, or 0.8%, to 23,963.63
The yen traded at 113.46 to the U.S. dollar, weakening from levels near 113.06 earlier. A weaker yen is usually a positive for exporters as it increases their overseas earnings when converted back to local currency.
Toyota shares rose 0.7% Sony shares were up 0.4% and Honda rose 0.6%
Toshiba shares fell 1.4% following reports that the troubled conglomerate wants to raise at least 1 trillion yen ($8.83 billion U.S.) from the sale of a majority stake in its flash memory business. The company previously reported a $6.3 billion writedown of its U.S. nuclear unit.
In Hong Kong, HSBC announced its 2016 pre-tax profit fell 62% to $7.1 billion U.S., as the bank grappled with slowing economic growth in its core markets in Hong Kong and Britain and took one-time charges related to some of its businesses.
Hong Kong-listed HSBC shares fell 4.1% in the aftermath, while rival Standard Chartered slipped 1.5%
Korean markets picked up steam, after customs data showed a jump in exports in the first 20 days of February.
Exports climbed 26.2% on-year in dollar terms, while imports increased 26%, and the country posted a trade surplus of $2.19 billion U.S.
Samsung Electronics shares advanced 0.7% despite the arrest of group chief Jay Y. Lee on Friday for his alleged role in a corruption scandal. Lee was questioned by authorities over the weekend, and reports suggest he will likely be indicted by next week.
Shares of Kakao, which is known for its messaging platform Kakao Talk, rose 4.3% to 88,400 Korean won after Alibaba-affiliate Ant Financial said it will invest $200 million U.S. into Kakao's mobile payments subsidiary.
The Australian dollar slipped slightly against the greenback, trading at $0.7666, down from its previous close at $0.7686 U.S.
CHINA
In Shanghai, the CSI 300 regained 11.43 points, or 0.3%, to 3,482.82
Chinese stocks led regional gainers with mainland indexes extending a nearly 7% rise over the last month thanks to an influx of fresh funds from domestic institutional investors and a brightening outlook for the domestic economy.
In other markets
In Taiwan, the Taiex Index gained back 10.73 points, or 0.1%, to 9,763.93
In Korea, the Kospi index gained 18.54 points, or 0.9%, to 2,102.93
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index settled 2.5 points, or 0.1%, to 3,094.10
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 improved 16.19 points, or 0.2%, to 7,115.69
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 faded 4.06 points, or 0.1%, to 5,791.03
