Asia markets retraced some of their morning losses on Monday, but a strong yen continued to weigh Japan's shares even as a reading on China inflation helped to bolster mainland stocks.
The Nikkei 225 shed 70.39 points, or 0.4%, to 15,751.13
The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong gained 70.41 points, or 0.4%, to finish Monday at 20,440.81
In the currency market, the Japanese yen broke the 108 handle, with the U.S. dollar/yen trading at 107.76 Monday afternoon, compared with Friday's close at 108.03.
Major exporters in Japan mostly sold off on Monday, with shares of Toyota dropping 3.5%, Nissan down 1.7% and Honda off 2.1%. Shares of Sony, however, added 3.7%
In company news, shares of Samsung Engineering gained 6.4% On Monday, Nomura issued a note upgrading the stock to Buy from Reduce.
In October, Reuters reported Samsung Engineering booked a 1.5-trillion-won ($1.3-billion U.S.) operating loss in the third quarter and also flagged the sale of its headquarters building.
Energy plays were mixed, with Santos adding 3.1%, Woodside Petroleum closing up 0.4%. Shares of Inpex, however, slipped 0.2%.
Elsewhere, the Australian dollar traded at $0.7542 U.S. in the evening local time.
CHINA
The Shanghai CSI 300 index recovered 44.37 points, or 1.4%, to 3,230.10.
In the oil patch, mainland shares of China Petroleum were up 1.4%
Before the market open, China released its March inflation data. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 2.3% on-year in March, compared with a 2.5% forecast by a Reuters poll and in line with February's 2.3% on-year reading. Consumer inflation was down 0.4% on-month.
The producer price index (PPI), meanwhile, declined on-year for the 49th consecutive month, down 4.3%, but at a slower rate of decline than in February.
The Chinese yuan traded nearly flat against the U.S. dollar, with the dollar/yuan pair at 6.4675. Before market open, the People's Bank of China set the yuan midpoint rate at 6.4649 to the dollar; China's central bank lets the yuan spot rate rise or fall a maximum of 2% against the dollar relative to the official fixing rate.
In other markets;
In Taiwan, the Taiex Index acquired 21.09 points, or 0.3%, to 8,562.59
In Korea, the Kospi index settled 1.68 points, or 0.1%, to 1,970.37
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index nosed up 0.92 points to 2,809.24
New Zealand’s NZX 50 dropped 5.17 points, or 0.1%, to 6,725.11
In Australia, the ASX 200 slid 6.08 points, or 0.1%, to 4,931.53
