Asia close: Chinese stocks fall as industrial profit growth slows

Asian stocks were mostly higher overnight save those in China in the wake of figures revealing a slowdown for industrial profits last month.

Japan's Nikkei-225 rose 0.08% or 18.52 points to close at 22,911.21, alongside gains of 0.38% to 2,436.67 on the South Korean Kospi while Sydney's ASX 200 finished nearly unchanged at 6,069.87.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was similarly little changed, tacking on 0.07% to finish the session at 29,597.66.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange's Composite Index on the other hand finished sharply lower, erasing 0.92% to end at 3,275.78.

According to China's National Bureau of Statistics, uindustrial profits grew at a 14.9% pace year-on-year in November, down from 25.1% for October.

Elsewhere in China, traders were buys digesting news that Beijing had ordered Jiangxi Copper, the country's top producer, to shutter its output for at least a week pending a further assessment of pollution levels.

Acting as a backdrop, dollar/yen was barely changed, drifting into the red by just 0.02% to 113.155.

Further afield, in Seoul, stock in Hyundai Heavy Industries plummeted 29% after the second-largest shipbuilder globally announced its intention to sell 12.5m new shares before the end of March at roughly a 24% discount.

Separately, Hyundai Robotics, the holding company for the Heavy Industries unit, disclosed plans to float its oil refining arm, Hyundai Oilbank Co.