TOKYO: Asian stocks were mixed on Tuesday after a day of declines on Monday with investor confidence hit by fears of an earlier than expected US rate rise.
In China, investor sentiment was down despite official figures showing China’s core inflation rate rising to 1.4% in February.
China’s new consumer inflation target is about 3%, down from 3.5% in 2014.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 0.38% points, while the Shanghai Composite was down 0.65% at 3,280.95.
The consumer price inflation (CPI) data exceeded most expectations and compared with a rise of 0.8% in January, which was the weakest reading since November 2009.
The rise in inflation for the period was attributed by officials to China’s Lunar New Year celebrations.
Earlier this month, China’s Premier Li Keqiang said the government would have a consumer inflation target of about 3%, down from 3.5% in 2014.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 was up 0.40% at 18,865.67 points.
In Australia, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.43%% at 5,846.30.
The Australian index on Monday recorded its biggest fall since the first week of January.
Japanese shares had also closed lower on Monday as revised growth data showed that the economy grew less than initially forecast in the fourth quarter.
