Asia-Pacific markets mostly fell on Tuesday, breaking ranks with Wall Street that saw the NASDAQ Composite reach a new record on the back of tech stocks.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index climbed 443.63 points, or 1.1%, to 40,074.69, a three-month high.
The Japanese yen weakened to as much as 161.67 against the U.S. dollar, staying at 38-year lows.
The Bank of Japan is likely to cut bond purchases by about $100 billion in the first year under a quantitative tightening plan to be released this month, according to a Reuters survey.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries rose for a seventh straight day, climbing 5.45% to a fresh all-time high.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index gained 50.53 points, or 0.3%, to 17,769.14.
Longfor Group climbed 3.36% after the company repurchased $219.6 million of notes that carried an interest rate of 3.85%.
Traders in Asia assessed South Korea’s inflation rate which came in at 2.4% for June, missing expectations of economists polled by Reuters who had predicted it at 2.7%.
Australian markets moved downward, as the Reserve Bank of Australia released the minutes from its June monetary policy meeting, in which board members discussed raising interest rates but eventually decided to hold them steady at 4.35%.
Members said it was still possible to achieve the inflation target within a reasonable time frame without moving from full employment, while acknowledging this “narrow path” was becoming narrower.
In other markets
In Shanghai, the CSI 300 siphoned off 6.39 points, or 0.2%, to 3,471.19.
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index picked up 29.33 points, or 0.9%, to 3,367.90.
In Korea, the Kospi index erased 23.45 points, or 0.8%, to 2,780.86.
In Taiwan, the Taiex index dropped 179.2 points, or 0.8%, to 22,879.37.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 fell 12.65 points, or 0.1%, to 11.776.73.
In Australia, the ASX 200 slipped 32.58 points, or 0.4%, to 7,718.17.
