Asian markets mostly rose on Thursday with Hong Kong higher on signs of a pickup in Chinese manufacturing.
The main data point for Asia on Thursday was preliminary Chinese manufacturing figures for March, which came out at 51.7 compared with a final score of 50.4 in February. A reading above 50 indicates an expansion in manufacturing activity.
The data was significant because it was first slice of economic data to come out of China since the numbers for February, which painted a picture of sluggish activity in Asia's largest economy.
Signs of a manufacturing pickup in March suggest that February's disappointing data could be due to the seasonal effect of the Lunar New Year holidays, rather than the start of a downtrend in China.
Stocks in Hong Kong, which were flat at the opening, found their direction after the data was released, with the Hang Seng Index up 0.1%. The Shanghai Composite Index on mainland China also gained 0.2%.
The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia, an economy with close trade ties to China was off 0.3%, while South Korea's Kospi Composite added 0.1%.
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Investors in Japan were anticipating Haruhiko Kuroda's first news conference as the Bank of Japan's governor. Expectations are high for Mr. Kuroda to implement the aggressive monetary easing that Japan's new government believes could pull the country out of deflation. The event scheduled later on Thursday, could give an indication of what Mr. Kuroda intends to do.
The U.S. dollar climbed 0.9% against the yen on Wednesday, and weakened a touch in early Asian trading Thursday�the greenback was recently at �95.98 compared with �96.03 late Wednesday in New York.
Japanese stocks started trading again after closing for a public holiday on Wednesday, with the Nikkei Stock Average welcoming a weaker yen by rising 1.2%.
Financial institutions and exporters performed well after Mr. Kuroda assumed control of the central bank: Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group was up 1.4% and Canon Inc. advanced 2.1%.
Also in Tokyo, Yahoo Japan Corp. jumped 3.1% after the Internet portal said that it will pay a larger year-end dividend in the fiscal year ending March than in the previous year.
Another Asian online giant was in focus on Thursday, as China's largest Internet company, Tencent Holdings fell 4.2% in Hong Kong as the market was unimpressed by its slightly above-view results, with fourth quarter net profit up 36.5% on-year underpinned by strong gaming revenue. The stock hit an all-time high early last week and is now 9.8% lower.
In Australia, surfwear retailer Billabong International said that it is was investigating the reasons for a plunge in its share price, and had requested that its stock be suspended to allow it to look into the matter. The company is at the center of a takeover battle between two U.S. consortia. Its stock is currently halted after falling as much as 22%.
Write to Daniel Inman at daniel.inman@wsj.com
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