Asian Shares Gain Led By Japan; China Stocks Slip

(RTTNews) - Asian stocks rose broadly on Tuesday, with Chinese markets underperforming after the release of mixed PMI data.

The dollar rose against its major peers ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy announcement, due Wednesday.

Gold prices slipped in Asian trading while oil was little changed after falling sharply on Monday amid talks on potential ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Chinese stocks ended lower after a mixed batch of business activity readings.

While a private survey painted a rosier picture of the manufacturing sector, official surveys revealed that manufacturing and services activity both expanded at a slower pace in April.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite index dipped 0.26 percent to 3,104.82.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index finished marginally higher at 17,763.03 amid buzz that yuan devaluation could be on the cards to make the Chinese economy more competitive.

Japanese markets led regional gains as trading resumed after a long holiday weekend.

The Nikkei average jumped 1.24 percent to 38,405.66 as the U.S. dollar rose to the upper 156-yen range after seeing sharp gains the previous day on suspected intervention by authorities in the currency markets.

The broader Topix index climbed 2.11 percent to 2,743.17 as government data showed Japan's factory output grew more than expected in March.

Japan's retail sales grew substantially less than expected in March, while the unemployment rate remained unchanged from the previous month at 2.6 percent, separate data showed.

Seoul stocks edged up slightly even as monthly activity data pointed to a patchy economic recovery. The Kospi average inched up 0.17 percent to 2,692.06.

Samsung Electronics rose over 1 percent after the world's largest memory chip maker said operating profit jumped 932.8 percent in the first quarter ending March, reflecting the global AI development boom.

Australian markets eked out modest gains as disappointing retail sales data pushed back fears of imminent rate hikes.

The benchmark S&P ASX 200 rose 0.35 percent to 7,664.10 while the broader All Ordinaries index settled 0.32 percent higher at 7,932.

Banks ended mostly higher ahead of trading updates in early May.

Azure Minerals soared 8.2 percent as a takeover offer for the company by SH Mining progressed with a key approval received from the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Across the Tasman, New Zealand's benchmark S&P NZX-50 index edged up 0.35 percent, to 11,957.50.

U.S. stocks eked out modest gains overnight to extend last week's gains as the Fed meeting loomed and Tesla said it had cleared its path to roll out self-driving software in China.

The Dow and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite both rose about 0.4 percent while the S&P 500 added 0.3 percent.