ASIA MARKETS: Asian Markets Mixed, As Investors Keep Wary Eye On Chinese Stocks

Nikkei rises as yen pulls back; Samsung's recovery boosts Kospi

Asia-Pacific stocks mirrored modest overnight declines in Europe and the U.S., though Japanese equities turned higher thanks to a pullback in the yen.

Ahead of a busy set of events in the coming days -- including a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and key economic reports -- market participants have been cautious about placing big bets.

There is a "lack of any prominent leads that we are likely to see in the Asian market today," said Jingyi Pan, a market strategist at IG Group. "Investors are just sitting on their hands waiting for [key drivers] to come."

After a slow start due to overnight yen gains, the Nikkei finished morning trading up 0.2%. The U.S. dollar stood at around Yen111.25 after falling below Yen111 earlier.

China remained the regional focus following recent declines.

Stocks listed in Shenzhen rose slightly Tuesday morning, while the Shanghai Composite fell 0.3% after reaching a three-month closing low yesterday.

Economic reports on China in the next several weeks "are going to be very important," said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at AxiTrader. A November manufacturing reading is due Friday.

Indexes in Hong Kong , Taiwan and New Zealand were all off about 0.4%.

Korea's Kospi was down yesterday after Samsung Electronics skidded 5% on an analyst downgrade. The Kospi rose 0.3% Tuesday as Samsung (005930.SE) recovered.

Oil stocks in the region were weaker as U.S. oil futures fell Monday from 2 1/2 -year highs. WTI was recently down 0.6% at $57.79 a barrel while Brent eased 0.2%.

If OPEC and its partners in a production-capping deal agree on anything less than a six-month extension to the current program at Thursday's meeting, that "would upset the apple cart," said Shane Chanel, an equities and derivatives adviser at ASR Wealth Advisers. Most observers expect the plan to continue for another nine months.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 27, 2017 22:40 ET (03:40 GMT)