Asia: Japanese and Chinese stocks higher, Australia falls on construction data

Asian markets saw mixed fortunes on Wednesday following losses in the US.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 was slightly up by 0.05% thanks to an improvement in small business confidence over May to 48.1 from 47.4 the month before, beating expectations of a 48 level. In company news, Japanese oil company Inpex declined 1.11% on project delays.

Bank of Japan's Governor Kikuo Iwata said overnight that the central bank "currently expects that the CPI rate is likely to reach around 2% in the first half of fiscal 2016", a forecast that has been "somewhat delayed" from its first projection.

In China, the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.16% driven by economic data. Industrial profits increased 2.6% in April from a decline of 0.4% the month before, while consumer sentiment remained at 111.1 in May.

Accendo Markets analysts noted that "supportive stimulus hopes persist as questions remain over the strength of underlying growth in the world’s second economy".

Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.6% and Australia’s ASX was also on the red side with stocks falling 0.82% despite an improvement in the Westpac leading index to 0.1% in April.

Continuing with Australia, construction output fell 2.4% in April from -0.6% the month before.