Asian shares traded mixed on Wednesday, mirroring a mixed finish on Wall Street overnight as uncertainty over when the Federal Reserve will raise rates prevailed.
Overnight, U.S. stocks were mostly lower as traders held off bets ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) statement that could shed light on the timing of an interest rate hike.
The FOMC's two-day meeting kicked off Tuesday, with the highly anticipated post-meeting statement and press conference expected on Wednesday. Investors are monitoring whether or not the word "patient" remains in the text as an indication of when short-term interest rates might go up.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJI) and S&P 500 (INDEX: .SPX) closed down 0.7 and 0.3 percent, respectively, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq (NASDAQ: .IXIC) inched up 0.2 percent.
Nikkei slips 0.1%
Japan's Nikkei 225 index retreated from Tuesday's fresh 15-year high as markets reacted to a smaller-than-expected increase in February's export data. Japanese exports rose 2.4 percent last month due to a fall in shipments to China, according to data from the Ministry of Finance early Wednesday, a slowdown from a 17.0 percent on-year rise in January.
It was a mixed picture across the board, with index heavyweight Fanuc (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 6954.T-JP) barely supporting the bourse. The industrial robot maker notched up 0.5 percent, buoyed by last week's news that it considers bolstering shareholder returns, but gains were offset by a nearly 2 percent decline in Fast Retailing (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 9983.T-JP) and Softbank (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 9984.T-JP).
Sony (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 6758.T-JP) rallied more than 5 percent after revising its third-quarter profit on Tuesday. The electronics giant said its official operating profit for the third quarter was 182 billion yen (: OSEJPY=) (about $1.5 billion), up 2.2 percent from the estimate it reported last month.
Shares of Nintendo (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 7974.T-JP) and DeNA (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 2432.T-JP) were untraded at the end of the morning session after both companies announced plans to jointly develop game applications. But, Nintendo-related shares got a boost from the news; Mitsumi Electric (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 6767.T-JP) and Hosiden (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 6804.T-JP) surged more than 10 percent each. Bank of Kyoto (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 8369.T-JP), which is the second-biggest shareholder of the gamemaker, also rocketed 19.5 percent.
"The property market will have to [stop] being a drag in order [for China] to hit the 7 percent growth target this year. This will require further monetary accommodation," ING analysts wrote in a note. "We remain of the view that the People's Bank of China (PBoC) will deliver another 25-basis-point cut in policy interest rates in each of the last three quarters of 2015."
Mainland developers were largely buoyant in early trade, with China Merchants Property and Poly Real Estate (Shanghai Stock Exchange: 48-SZ) up more than 1 percent each.
Brokerages were on course for two straight days of gains; Huatai Securities, China's largest stock brokerage, rose 4.6 percent, while Haitong Securities and Citic Securities rose over 1 percent each on news that authorities plan to allow brokerages and securities investment advisers to expand their wealth management business.
Meanwhile, the yuan (Exchange: CNY=) hit its highest level since mid-January against the U.S. dollar. It last traded at 6.2365 per dollar.
In Hong Kong, CK Hutchison Holdings leaped 1 percent in its first day of trading. The new company is the product of a reshuffle in the property assets of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing and replaces the old Cheung Kong Holdings (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: 1-HK), which were suspended on March 10. Meanwhile, the broader Hang Seng index rose 0.9 percent.
ASX sheds 0.6%
Australia's S&P ASX 200 index widened losses as the big four lenders fell back into negative territory. A 7.9 percent slump in shares of Fortescue Metals continued to weigh on the resource-heavy bourse. The miner had scrapped a $2.5 billion high-yield bond issue announced on Tuesday.
Oil-related counters were also stung by declining commodity prices; Santos and Oil Search lost 2.1 and 1.2 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, Orica (ASX: ORI-AU) slumped 3.1 percent on news that its CEO Ian Smith will be stepping down.
Outperforming the bourse was the country's biggest construction materials and building products group Boral (ASX: BLD-AU), whose shares shot up 1.2 percent after announcing a share buyback program for up to 5 percent of the company's issued capital.
South Korea's Kospi index wavered between gains and losses early Wednesday, seemingly affected by a rise in last month's jobless number. Released before the market open, South Korea's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for February came in at 3.9 percent, higher than the 3.4 percent in the preceding month.
Carmakers Hyundai Motor and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors climbed more than 1 percent, respectively, brushing off news that their sales grew at a lower-than-market average pace in Europe last month.
AK Holdings, the holding firm of budget carrier Jeju Air, extended losses into a second day after Singapore Airlines confirmed yesterday that it is in talks to take a stake in the South Korean low-cost carrier. Shares of AK tanked 3.6 percent.
- CNBC's Evelyn Cheng contributed to this market report
