Asian Shares Mostly Lower

        China shares gained Wednesday, extending a whirlwind first quarter rally, despite signs of weakness in the country's economy.
        Chinese firms trading in Hong Kong were up 1.3%, while the Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.7%. The latter benchmark of mainland stocks had gained 16% since the beginning of the year as of Tuesday's close, raising fears of a bubble driven by new domestic investors. Analysts attributed the latest gains to speculation of further easing from Beijing.
        On Wednesday, the HSBC China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, a gauge of nationwide manufacturing activity, fell to a final reading of 49.6 in March from 50.7 in February, according to HSBC Holdings PLC. The contraction comes on the heels of a better-than-expected official manufacturing PMI report from China's National Bureau of Statistics, with the gauge rising to 50.1 compared to 49.9 in February.
        Japan stocks led Asian markets mostly lower following a worse-than-expected survey of business sentiment, a weaker dollar and an overnight Wall Street selloff.
        The Nikkei Stock Average fell as much as 1.5% before rebounding off its lows, and was last at 19078.81, off 0.7%.
        The dollar was sharply lower against the yen, at Y119.70--bad for Japanese exporters--after the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq fell.
        Some traders saw a weak result from the Bank of Japan's quarterly tankan survey--published minutes before the market opened--as providing the biggest and most viable reason to sell stocks. Sentiment among Japan's big manufacturers barely changed in the three months to January, despite expectations that the weak yen would improve their mood.
        There is a confluence of sell motives at work, said Daisuke Uno, strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. "Investors expected more from the BOJ tankan result, and there was a lot of hype about record corporate profits for the just-ended fiscal year," Mr. Uno said. "And then there is just routine profit-taking after a good quarter for the Nikkei."
        The Nikkei booked an advance of 10% through the first three months of 2015.
        Write to Brad Frischkorn at bradford.frischkorn@wsj.com
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        (END) Dow Jones Newswires

        March 31, 2015 23:10 ET (03:10 GMT)

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