The main indexes of the Asia-Pacific markets failed to find a common direction, as investors analyzed data on Japanese trade and weak business sentiment among the country’s major manufacturers.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced as much as 3% in the session, but erased some of its gains to 1.86% in late trade thanks to shares of property, technology and healthcare companies. China’s benchmark CSI 300 rose 1.35% to 3,456.87 points, as WuXi AppTec led the gains, rising by 6.85%, and WuXi Biologics grew by 5.92%.
The Hang Seng Tech index, which tracks the 30 largest technology companies listed in Hong Kong, rose by 3.12%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index shed 0.26% to 38,262.16 points after a Reuters Tankan survey showed business confidence among Japanese manufacturers fell to minus 1 point in February from 6 points in January. This is the first negative result since April.
Other data on Wednesday showed that Japan’s exports rose 11.9% in January from a year earlier, while imports contracted for a tenth straight month, falling by 9.6%. As a result, the country’s trade balance has shifted to a deficit of 1.76 trillion JPY.
In the South Korean market, the Kospi index fell by 0.17% to end the session at 2,653.31 points, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.66% to 7,608.4 points.
