Asian Markets Except China Climb on Upbeat Earnings Reports

Most Asian markets except Shanghai gained taking cues from a positive close on Wall Street as well as an upbeat regional data.

While Japan and Korea advanced on an above forecast earnings and a rate cut by the central bank, respectively, China suffered from rising inflation.

Japan's Nikkei average rose 0.7% or 96.30 points to 14,382 and South Korea's Kospi advanced 0.7% or 13.35 points to 1,969.8. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 index shed 0.1% or 3.65 points to 5,196.1.

China's Shanghai composite index declined 0.3% or 5.67 points to 2,240.6, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 0.1% or 16.83 points to 23,227.5.

Asian markets rallied to a near two-year high on the previous trading session after the US and German equities posted record gains. Australia's unemployment rate for April declined to 5.5% from 5.6%, fuelling positive sentiments across markets.

In the US, market sentiments were upbeat as a number of S&P 500 companies projected earnings that were ahead of estimates.

Out of the 436 S&P 500s' companies, which reported their first-quarter earnings, 67.2% beat, 9.2% were in line and 23.6% missed consensus estimates by analysts, according to a Reuters data.

In China, stocks were down after data showed that consumer prices were higher- than- expected in April.

Major Movers

In Sydney, media conglomerate News Corp's shares gained 3.3% on better-than-expected third-quarter earnings. Its revenue at $9.5bn, was higher than the projections of $9.1bn.

Surfwear maker Billabong International, requested its shares be suspended from trade as negotiations were underway for a possible takeover.

In Seoul, KB Financial Group gained 2.4%, and the Shinhan Financial Group Co gained 1.9% after the central bank cut interest rates by a quarter point to 2.5%.

In Tokyo, Financial services firm Resona Holdings added 2.4% after the Nikkei newspaper reported it planned to repay the government in five years.

Toyota rose 1.4% after it reported that its full-year net profit more than tripled on the back of a weakening yen and robust sales in the US, the company's largest export market.

Exporters Fanuc Corp and Casio Computer gained 2.6% and 3.4% respectively on upbeat global cues.

Toshiba Corp was down 3.1% after the firm posted lower-than-expected profit growth. Daikin Industries soared 7% after the company posted an increase in annual profit.