The leading Asian stock exchanges went in different directions in early Wednesday trading after technology stocks on Wall Street surged in anticipation of key inflation figures from the USA.
In Tokyo, the key Nikkei 225 index had risen by 1.4 per cent by lunchtime, while the broader Topix index jumped 0.6.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index, on the other hand, was marked by gloomy faces and fell 0.2.
The same gloom also characterised the composite indexes in Shanghai and Shenzhen, which lost 0.3 and 0.1, respectively.
