Asia close: Japanese, Vietnamese issues outperform

Equities around the Asia Pacific region finished the session little changed for the most part, despite record closes overnight on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite.

However, the Nikkei-225 was a bit of an exception, tacking on 0.57% or 135.46 points to end at 23,849.99 despite gains in the country's currency, the yen.

In an unexpected move, overnight the Bank of Japan reduced the size of its reverse debt auctions, sending dollar/yen down by 0.35% to 112.67.

The BoJ announced it would purchase only 190bn yen of maturing in between 10 to 25 years, down from 200bn yen-worth previously. Purchases of Japanese government debt maturing in more than 25 years were also trimmed, from 100bn yen to 80bn yen.

Nevertheless, analysts at Rabobank cautioned clients that "for the time being we would not read too much into this with regards to future implications for the BoJ's QE programme."

Vietnamese stocks, one of 2017's top performers in the emerging market space, also managed to continue ploughing ahead, with the HNX index jumped 0.88% to 122.14.

Central bank officials in Tokyo weren't the only ones tinkering with their policy-settings on Tuesday.

According to Bloomberg, on Tuesday the People's Bank of China told some of the banks that contribute to its daily fix for the yuan to adjust the so-called 'counter-cyclical factor' they employ when calculating their submissions.

That was interpreted by some in the markets as a display of confidence in the staying power of the yuan's gains over the course of 2017.

Nevertheless, in reaction China's currency lost 0.4% to 6.5258 against the greenback, despite which by the end of trading the Shanghai Stock Exchange's Composite Index had only managed to edge up by 0.13% or 4.42 points to 3,413.90.