Investing.com - Tokyo stocks rose 1.48% on Tuesday along with China shares on data sets that painted a mixed picture of the region's top economy and a weakening yen that lifted exporters ahead of expectations the European Central Bank will launch fresh stimulus.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange was up 251.11 points at 17,265.40. The Shanghai Composite surged 1.81%, a day after a sharp fall of more than 7% on new margin rules, while the Hang Seng index gained 0.72%.
China said full year growth rose 7.4% in 2014, the slowest pace in 24 years, but quarterly data beat expectations.
China's fourth quarter GDP rose 7.3%, industrial production gained 7.9% in December and and retail sales increased 11.9%, all beating expectations.
Economists expected the government to report that the economy expanded 7.2% year-on-year in the final three months of last year, down on the third quarter's gain of 7.3%, and the slowest quarterly growth rate since the start of 2009.
Retail sales were seen up 11.7% year-on-year in December, unchanged from November and industrial production rose 7.4% in December year-on-year, a gain over November's 7.2% increase.
U.S. markets were shut on Monday to mark the Martin Luther King Jr memorial holiday.