Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed on Wednesday after a slew of economic data.
The Nikkei 225 recovered 62.08 points, or 0.2%, to 29,053.97.
Japan’s retail sales rose 5.2% in March as compared with a year ago, according to government data. That was higher than a median market forecast for a 4.7% gain.
The Japanese yen traded at 108.91 per U.S. dollar, having weakened notably from levels below 108 against the greenback seen earlier in the trading week.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index regained 129.8 points, or 0.5%, to 29,071.34.
Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba jumped 2.3% on Wednesday despite a Wall Street Journal report that China is investigating how its founder Jack Ma managed to get speedy approvals for Alibaba-affiliate Ant Group’s stock listing last year.
Australia’s consumer price index rose 0.6% in the first quarter, according to data released by the country’s Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday. That was lower than expectations in a Reuters poll for a 0.9% increase from the previous quarter.
The Australian dollar was at $0.7745 after yesterday’s decline from around $0.78.
In other markets
In Shanghai, the CSI 300 advanced 28.72 points, or 0.6%, to 5,119.24
In Singapore, the Straits Times index added 5.13 points, or 0.2%, to 3,219.56.
In Korea, the Kospi index fell 33.95 points, or 1.1%, to 3,181.47.
In Taiwan, the Taiex index subtracted 28.37 points, or 0.2%, to 17,567.53
In New Zealand the NZX 50 restocked 25.62 points, or 0.2%, to 12,646.14
In Australia, the ASX 200 picked up 30.84 points, or 0.4%, to 7,064.67.
