Investing.com - Asian shares gained on Thursday after a preliminary industry survey showed China's manufacturing sector in solid expansion territory.
HSBC's China flash manufacturing PMI for July rose to 52.0, a jump from the June reading of 50.7 that indicated that the economy is finally turning around.
"The HSBC China Manufacturing PMI rose further to 52.0 in the flash reading for July. Both new orders and new export orders expanded at a faster pace than in June," said HSBC chief China economist Qu Hongbin.
"The employment and prices sub-indices also improved. Meanwhile, stocks of finished goods contracted at a slower pace. Economic activity continues to improve in July, suggesting that the cumulative impact of mini-stimulus measures introduced earlier is still filtering through. We expect policy makers to maintain their accommodative stance over the next few months to consolidate the recovery."
Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.2% and South Korea's KOSPI was up 0.3% and the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.1%.
The Hang Seng Index was up nearly 1%.
In Sydney, Newcrest Mining Ltd (ASX:NCM) sank 4.2% after the gold miner warned that it may book further hefty write-downs.
Overnight, U.S. stocks finished mixed to higher as investors traded on earnings, while the ongoing conflict in Ukraine weighed on gains stemming from upbeat data released a day earlier.
The Dow 30 fell 0.16%, the S&P 500 index rose 0.18%, while the NASDAQ Composite index rose 0.40%.
On the data front, investors continued to applaud U.S. inflation and existing home sales released on Tuesday.
The Labor Department reported that the U.S. consumer price index rose 2.1% in June, unchanged from the previous month and in line with forecasts.
On a month-over-month basis, U.S. consumer prices were up 0.3% after a 0.4% increase in May, also in line with expectations.
June's core inflation rate, which excludes food and energy costs, rose by 0.1% from May and 1.9% on year, slightly below market calls for 0.2% and 2.0% readings, respectively, which illustrated how gasoline was driving the CPI up, though markets viewed the numbers as fundamentally healthy anyway.
Elsewhere, the National Association of Realtors reported earlier that existing U.S. home sales rose 2.6% to 5.04 million units in June from 4.91 million in May, beating market forecasts for a 2.0% rise to 4.97 million units.
Still, reports that two Ukrainian jet fighters were shot down over the rebel-held city of Donetsk only days after pro-Russian separatists allegedly shot down a Malaysian Airlines flight with a missile capped stock-market gains and stoked fears fighting there and in Gaza will slow global recovery.
On Thursday the U.S. is to produce data on unemployment claims, manufacturing activity and new home sales.