Asia share
Beijing, China (BBN)-Asian shares began the week mostly higher, shrugging off a downbeat session on Wall Street amid anticipation of higher interest rates.
Friday’s weak US inflation data failed to derail expectations that the Federal Reserve would tighten monetary policy, reports BBC.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 was up 0.3% at 19,314.41 after ending above 19,000 points for the first time in 15 years on Friday.
The dollar’s rise against the yen eased to 121.37 from 121.44 yen in New York.
Bucking the trend, shares of Toyo Tire & Rubber fell more than 16% after it announced last week that its subsidiary had falsified data to get government approval for an earthquake shock-absorption material.
In China, shares headed in the opposite direction.
The Shanghai Composite was up 0.6% to 3,394.03, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 0.3% to 23,763.7 – tracking the losses on Wall Street.
Australian shares headed lower with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index down 0.1% to 5,806.6.
In South Korea, the Kospi index was up 0.1% to 1,988.86 points.
Investors ignored data that showed that the country’s exports were down 3.3% in February, while imports fell 19.7% from a year ago- nearly unchanged from preliminary data released earlier.
BBN/SK/AD-16Mar15-9:50am (BST)