Asia report: Markets finish choppy Tuesday in the black

Trading in Asia was choppy on Tuesday, led by China, where traders were left digesting a fresh injection of liquidity from the People's Bank, as well as depressed factory data.

The country's central bank had cut the amount of money banks are required to keep in reserve by 0.5 percentage points on Monday, to 17%, which freed up around CNY 700bn (£76.33bn) for banks to put to loans.

That came before data early on Tuesday showed manufacturing activity in the People's Republic contracted more seriously from January to February than was expected. The country's official purchasing managers' index fell to 49, from 49.4 a month prior.

The unofficial gauge, the Caixin China general manufacturing purchasing managers' index, fell to a five month low of 48 for February.

Chinese traders initially seemed bemused by how to react to the stimulus from the People's Bank, which was designed to quash just the kind of sluggish activity the manufacturing data was highlighting.

The Shanghai Composite opened roughly flat, and traded up and down throughout the day, before closing up 1.68% at 2,733.17. Investors were also focused on renminbi, with the freely-traded offshore yuan strengthening to CNY 6.5444 per US dollar.

That strengthening came immediately after the central bank fixed the onshore yuan - which is permitted to trade 2% above or below its loose peg - stronger still.

Markets elsewhere in the region were mixed through the day, but largely up by end of play. The Nikkei Stock Average finished up 0.37%, having spent much of the day in the red after Japanese corporate profits managed their first drop in four years for the October-December quarter.

An unofficial gauge also showed manufacturing growth in the country slowed to the worst pace in eight months.

The Japanese government also started getting paid to borrow money on Tuesday, after selling benchmark bonds with a negative yield for the first time. Ten year benchmark Japanese government bonds had never been sold with a negative yield at auction, in which the bond buyer agrees from the start to pay for the privilege of lending money.

Japan's Ministry of Finance sold 10 year bonds with an interest rate of 0.1% at an average price of JPY 101.25, which produced a yield of -0.024%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index finished up 1.55%, and the S&P/ASX 200 was 0.85% ahead, after the Reserve Bank held Australia's cash rate at 2.0% as expected.

The S&P/NZX 50 in New Zealand gained 0.8%, following the lead of global markets on Monday after the stimulus move from the People's Bank of China. South Korean traders took the day off for Independence Movement Day.

Oil prices were rising after Asian trading, with Brent crude last up 0.79% to $36.86 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate up 1.17% to $34.15.

The yen crept away from the US dollar, and was last 0.42% weaker to JPY 113.16. The Aussie was 0.12% stronger at AUD 1.3987 to the greenback, and the Kiwi was 0.3% ahead at NZD 1.5128.