Asian shares mixed with Tokyo down as investors eye Greece debt talks

Investing.com - Shares in Tokyo fell on Tuesday in mixed Asian trade driven by jitters over events revolving around Greece's last-ditch efforts to work out a sovereign debt deal.

Investors were looking ahead to a meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Thursday, which was being seen as Greece's last chance to strike a deal.

The Nikkei 225 fell 0.61%, while the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.24%. In China, the Shanghai Composite eased 1.67%.

Earlier, the Reserve Bank of Australia sees monetary policy remaining accommodative especially as the Aussie has remained stronger than desired, according to minutes of the June 2 board meeting released on Tuesday.

The RBA held rates at a record low 2% at the meeting.

"Having eased policy at the previous meeting members judged that it was appropriate to leave the cash rate unchanged and to assess information on economic and financial conditions as it becomes available," the RBA said.

"These data would inform the board's assessment of the state of the economy and the outlook and hence whether the current stance of policy would most effectively foster sustainable growth and inflation consistent with the target," the RBA said.

On the yen, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda sought to clarify that remarks last week did not imply that the nominal yen rate would not weaken. He said his comments were about the real-effective exchange rate and not aimed at any pairs.

Overnight, U.S. stocks were lower after the close on Monday, as losses in the Consumer Goods, Industrials and Basic Materials sectors led shares lower.

At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.60%, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.46%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 0.42%.

The Federal Reserve said that industrial production declined by 0.2% last month, disappointing expectations for a gain of 0.3%. Industrial production fell by 0.5% in April, whose figure was revised down from a previously reported drop of 0.3%.

The report came after the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said that its general business conditions index fell to -2.0 this month from a reading of 3.1 in May. Analysts had expected the index to rise to 6.0 in June.

Market participants were looking ahead to the outcome of the Fed’s latest policy meeting on Wednesday for a clear signal on when it could start to raise interest rates.

Upbeat data on U.S. consumer sentiment on Friday underlined expectations that the central bank could start to hike rates at its September meeting.