On Wednesday Asian shares were mostly higher despite another series of downbeat Chinese economic reports, as investors instead hoped for further stimulus from Beijing to prevent a bigger slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.
China's factory output climbed a less-than-expected 5.9 percent in April compared with the same period in 2014, spurring speculation the government will have to step up its efforts to shore up the sputtering economy in order to meet its gross domestic product target. Fixed-asset investment and retail sales also fell short of expectations.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index rose 0.7 percent to 19,765.19 points and
Seoul's Kospi gained 0.8 percent 2,114.34.
The Shanghai Composite Index
gave up 0.1 percent 4,395.27 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng also shed 0.1
percent to 27,371.33.
Sydney's S&P ASX 200 advanced 0.6 percent to
5,708.60 and India's Sensex rose 0.1 percent to 26,911.12.
Taiwan, Singapore, Jakarta and New Zealand also rose.
European shares were expected to begin the trading day higher with financial spreadbetters predicting Britain's FTSE 100 would open up as much as 0.2 percent up, Germany's DAX 0.4 percent higher, and France's CAC 40 was seen up 0.3 percent.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was off session highs but still up 0.3 percent.
A day earlier, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.2 percent after dropping nearly six times that far during the day. The Standard & Poor's 500 lost 0.3 percent and the Nasdaq composite slid 0.4 percent.
Verizon, the biggest U.S. mobile phone carrier, agreed to buy Internet pioneer AOL for about $4.4 billion, a 15 percent premium to its closing price Monday. The agreement is the latest effort by a wireless company to tap into some of the money shifting to streaming video and mobile devices. Shares in AOL surged 18.6 percent. The stock added $7.93 to $50.52. Verizon slid 18 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $49.62.
In the currencies market, the euro rose to $1.1242 from the previous session's $1.1218. The greenback fell to 119.85 yen from 119.88 yen.
