Investing.com - Asian shares held stronger on Tuesday with data on China's economy underlying sentiment even though it presented a mixed picture.
Chinese non-manufacturing PMI for May rose to 55.5, the highest since November, from 54.8. The HSBC Manufacturing PMI May final came in at 49.4, lower than the 49.7 in the "flash" reading, but still above the 48.1 final in April.
The Hang Seng index rose 0.70% and Shanghai Composite gained 0.23% while the Nikkei 225 edged up 0.76%.
Among the actives were resource firms with Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co Ltd (SS:600688) up 0.8% and Yanzhou Coal Mining (HK:1171) rose 2.2%.
Overnight, U.S. stocks finished largely higher after investors applauded an upbeat U.S. factory gauge despite two revisions to the index that confused markets at first but in the end, revealed an expanding U.S. manufacturing sector.
The Dow 30 rose 0.16%, the S&P 500 index rose 0.07%, while the NASDAQ Composite index fell 0.13%.
In the U.S., the Institute of Supply Management reported that its manufacturing purchasing managers' index for May ticked down to 53.2 from 54.9 a month earlier before correcting it two times, once to 56.0 and last to 55.4.
While the corrections confused investors at first, stocks rose, as any figure over 50 signifies expansion, while the final revision was largely in line with expectations--analysts were originally expecting a 55.5 reading.
On Tuesday, the U.S. is to produce data on factory orders.