Asian Shares Mixed As Trade Tensions Weigh

(RTTNews) - Asian stocks ended mixed on Tuesday as U.S.-China tensions and jitters around the yuan offset growing optimism around chip stocks.

The dollar edged down towards one-week low in Asian trade as investors speculated on the possible outcomes of President-elect Donald Trump's tariff plans.

Gold ticked higher while oil extended overnight losses despite lingering concerns about Russian and Iranian supply amid sanctions.

China's Shanghai Composite index closed 0.71 percent higher at 3,229.64, reversing early losses after the United States has placed Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. on a blacklist due to alleged links to the Chinese military.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 1.22 percent to 19,447.58 as trade tensions weighed on tech stocks. Tencent Holdings plunged 7.3 percent and Alibaba dropped 0.9 percent.

Japanese markets led regional gains as a weaker yen boosted export-related stocks. Tech stocks also rallied, with Tokyo Electron surging 11.3 percent and SoftBank rising 1.2 percent as Nvidia unveiled its latest line of consumer GPUs, the GeForce RTX 50 Series, for both desktop and laptop platforms.

The Nikkei average jumped 1.97 percent to 40,083.30 while the broader Topix index settled 1.10 percent higher at 2,786.57.

Seoul stocks ended off their day's highs, with the Kospi average closing up 0.14 percent at 2,492.10.

Samsung Electronics dropped 0.9 percent and SK Hynix fell 2.4 percent as the two companies were left out of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's opening keynote speech at CES.

Australian markets eked out modest gains, with gold miners and tech-related stocks pacing the gainers while mining stocks extended losses from the previous session.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.34 percent to 8,285.10, extending gains for the fourth straight session. The broader All Ordinaries index ended up 0.31 percent at 8,542.90.

Across the Tasman, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX-50 index ended down 0.24 percent at 13,042.06.

U.S. stocks rose broadly overnight, the dollar dropped and yields on long-term Treasury securities edged higher as Foxconn reported record fourth-quarter revenue and President-elect Donald Trump called reports about him considering scaling back his tariff plans, "fake news."

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.2 percent and the S&P 500 gained 0.6 percent while the narrower Dow finished marginally lower.

European stocks rose the most in over a month on Monday after reports emerged that the incoming Trump administration may explore softer-than-expected tariffs.

The pan European STOXX 600 advanced 1 percent. The German DAX rallied 1.6 percent, France's CAC 40 surged 2.2 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 added 0.3 percent.