Investing.com - Asian shares held mostly weaker on Wednesday with Sydney gaining despite weak housing and consumer sentiment data.
The Nikkei 225 fell 1.22%. In China, the Shanghai Composite eased 2.21%, while the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index was down 0.69%. The yuan was down against the dollar Wednesday after the People's Bank of China set the fixing weaker for the first time in five sessions at 6.5106 compared with 6.5041.
The S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.61%. In Australia, the Westpac consumer sentiment gauge fell 2.2%, a sharp drop from a 4.2% gain previously. Also in Australia home loans for January dropped 3.9%, with a 2.3% drop seen month-on-month and housing finance eased 1.6% and which last gained 0.6%.
Overnight, U.S. stocks were lower after the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Financials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.64%, while the S&P 500 index lost 1.12%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 1.26%.