BANGKOK (AP) — Asian stocks rose Tuesday, lifted by a positive report on U.S. manufacturing, but shares in Japan sank as a strengthening yen hurt the country's powerhouse export sector.
Benchmark oil hovered below $105 per barrel. The dollar fell against the yen but held steady against the euro.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.4 percent to 20,603.95, South Korea's Kospi added 0.8 percent to 2,045.79 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained marginally to 4,330.
But Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.6 percent to 10,050.75, as a strengthening yen threatened to cut into the profits of exporters that depend heavily on overseas sales.
Mainland China markets are closed for public holidays.
On Monday, the U.S. Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, said that its index of manufacturing activity rose to 53.4 in March from 52.4 in February.
Wall Street rose after the report was released. In Asia, confidence in the global economy sent investors trolling for bargains.
"The Hong Kong market already dropped for four straight days, so today it is a technical rebound," said Linus Yip, a strategist at First Shanghai Securities in Hong Kong.
The U.S. report offset signs of weakness in China's services sector. The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said Tuesday that the non-manufacturing sector's Purchasing Managers Index rose 9.6 points from February to 58 points for March. Readings above 50 indicate an industry is expanding.
But Dariusz Kowalczyk of Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong said the result was below expectations and points to a cooling off in the services sector. The index typically rises strongly in March after Chinese New Year holidays.
Hong Kong property shares rose. China Overseas Land & Investment jumped 4 percent and Evergrande Real Estate Group soared 6.3 percent. The sector has been hit by a corruption scandal involving Sun Hung Kai Properties, the Chinese financial hub's largest property developer by market value.
Japanese exporters slumped. Mazda Motor Corp. fell 1.4 percent, while electronics giants Panasonic Corp. lost 2 percent and Sharp Corp. dropped 2.7 percent.
Shares in airlines were hit hard as oil prices rebounded. All Nippon Airways Co. lost 2.9 percent, China Southern Airlines Co. was down 2.2 percent and Taiwan's EVA Airways Corp. tumbled 4.5 percent.
The Dow Jones industrial average added 0.4 percent to close at 13,264.49 on Monday. It hasn't closed that high since the last day of 2007. The S&P 500 closed up 0.8 percent at 1,419.04. That was its highest close since May 19, 2008. The Nasdaq composite average gained 0.9 percent to 3,119.70.
Benchmark oil for May delivery was down 35 cents to $104.88 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose by $2.21 to $105.23 per barrel on the Nymex on Monday, its biggest gain since Feb. 21.
In currencies, the dollar fell to 81.95 yen from 82.18 yen late Monday in New York. The euro was nearly unchanged at $1.3333.
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