Asian markets ended mostly higher Tuesday, as Japan's Nikkei returned to trading after taking Monday off for holiday. Trading was performed cautiously before the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy meeting later in the global day and ahead of regional holidays throughout the rest of this week.
In Asia today, mining companies and Japanese automakers retreated as copper futures dropped and the yen strengthened. Technology shares traded slightly down, leaving the MSCI Asia Pacific Index little changed.
In early trading, the Japan’s Nikkei hit a seven-week intraday high of 9,704.25 but ended 23.98 points, or .25%, to 9602.11.
Canon rose 1.4% after the Nikkei reported that the company will likely post about 90 billion yen ($1.06 billion) in operating profit for the July-September period, up 50% from a year earlier.
Banking stocks were mixed -- Mizuho Trust & Banking Co., Ltd. closed up 2.86%.
China -- Auto makers had a rough day. Nissan Motor dropped 0.7% after announcing plans to nearly double its annual capacity of vehicle production in China by 2012. Honda Motor and Toyota Motor dropped 0.5% each.
Note -- China's foreign exchange market will be closed from Wednesday to Friday for the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Elsewhere:
Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose .11% to 22002.59.
South Korea's Kospi increased .29% to 1,832.63. (data from 20th -- market closed yesterday)
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 closed down .298% to 4,617.500.
India’s Sensex gained .48%.
Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur Composite Index rose 6.30 points to 1,475.99.
Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite Index lost .18%.
Shenzhen Composite rose .009% to 1,198.123.
Taiwan's Taiex was up .12%.
Singapore's Straits Times Index was up .47%.
New Zealand's NZX-50 closed up .62%.
Philippine shares were up .855%.
Shares in Thailand gained 1.533%.
