Asian shares were mostly higher on Wednesday after China's manufacturing sector showed signs of expansion in January and as investors looked ahead to the first review of policy this year by the U.S. Federal Reserve
The Nikkei 225 Index finally ended its skid, gaining 106.74 points, or 0.6%, to 19,148.08
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index returned to trade after its extended long weekend, but still negative 42.39 points, or 0.2%, to 23,318.39
Shares of Toshiba gained 0.5% earlier dropping as much as 3% after the Wall Street Journal reported that Toshiba will stop building nuclear power plants after incurring billions of dollars of losses to complete delayed projects in the U.S.
Gaming giant Nintendo dropped 3.3% after it cut its profit outlook by 10 billion yen ($88 million U.S.) due to weak console sales. Its latest console, the Switch, is expected to be released in March.
Mitsubishi Motors rallied 12.6% after it revised its full fiscal year guidance from operating losses of 27.6 billion yen ($244 million U.S.) to profits of one billion yen ($8.8 million U.S.) on the back of better cost reduction methods.
China's official manufacturing Purchasing Mangers Index (PMI) for January came in at 51.3, higher than a forecast of 51.2.
Meanwhile its official services sector PMI came in at 54.6 in January. A figure above 50 represents expansion in the sector, while a figure below 50 indicates contraction.
The Fed is expected to hold steady, but investors will eye the tone of the statement after the U.S. central bank in December forecast as many as three interest rate hikes in 2017.
The yen weakened slightly during the Asian session against the U.S. dollar, to trade at 113.14, as the Australian dollar held steady at $0.7557. The offshore yuan was weaker at 6.8326 against the dollar while the onshore yuan remains untraded during the Lunar New Year public holiday.
Korean markets regained ground, after trade data showed that January exports jumped 11.2% from the previous year, at its fastest pace of growth since 2012.
South Korea's December industrial output slipped 0.5% in December, missing a forecast expecting an increase of 0.3%.
In other currency news, the Kiwi was weaker at $0.728 U.S., below $0.7300 levels after data showed that New Zealand's jobless rate rose to 5.2% in the fourth-quarter and wage growth remained muted at 0.4% from the previous quarter, and 1.6% on-year.
In other markets
Markets in Shanghai and Taiwan remained shuttered for holiday
In Korea, the Kospi index gained 12.91 points, or 0.6%, to 2,080.48
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index regained 20.69 points, or 0.7%, to 3,067.49
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 recovered 4.75 points, or 0.1%, to 7,055.5
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 recouped 32.25 points, or 0.6%, to 5,653.16
