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Hong Kong - Asian markets edged up on bargain-buying on Thursday, with investors nervously awaiting Chinese economic data after a disappointing set of indicators at the weekend fuelled a broad sell-off this week.
The euro hovered around a 17-month high against the dollar struck in New York, while the Australian dollar also surged against its US counterpart after Sydney reported a jump in full-time employment.
Tokyo rose 0.47 percent by the break after sinking 2.59 percent on Wednesday, Hong Kong was up 0.33 percent, Sydney gained 0.60 percent, Shanghai climbed 1.07 percent and Seoul added 0.53 percent.
Apart from minor gains Tuesday, global markets have been on a downward trend since the weekend, when China announced a surprise trade deficit and dive in exports that stoked fears about the economy.
Exacerbating that are lingering liquidity woes and concerns about the business sector following the country's first corporate bond default on Friday.
While officials blamed much of the weak economic results on the Lunar New Year holiday, analysts said underlying troubles remain, and will be hoping for some respite with Thursday's data.
Beijing will unveil figures on industrial output, fixed asset investment -- a measure of government spending on infrastructure -- and retail sales in the afternoon.
"The mood has gone more risk-off again as questions over both Chinese economic growth and credit quality have re-surfaced," said Mutsumi Kagawa, senior global strategist at Tokai Tokyo Research Center.
"More and brighter data on how the US economy is performing would go a long way to mollifying such concerns, but for now the mood is sober," he told Dow Jones Newswires.
Wall Street provided a mixed lead, with the Dow losing 0.07 percent, the S&P 500 edging up 0.03 percent and the Nasdaq 0.37 percent higher.
In currency exchanges, the euro held on to gains enjoyed Wednesday in New York, where it touched a 17-month high of $1.3915 intraday before retreating to $1.3904 later on. In early Tokyo trade the single currency was at $1.3905.
Dealers moved into the unit after figures showed industrial output in the 18-nation eurozone fell 0.2 percent in January, following a sharper drop of 0.4 percent in December when it had 17 members. However, the underlying trend appears consistent with a very modest economic recovery in the bloc.
Compared with January 2013, output increased 2.1 percent.
The euro was also at 142.75 yen from 142.85 yen in New York, while the dollar stood at 102.70 yen, against 102.75 yen.
In other forex deals, the New Zealand dollar jumped to 85.27 US cents, its highest level since October, after country's central bank hiked interest rates and indicated further rises were likely.
And the Australian dollar jumped to to 90.56 US cents from 89.53 US cents late Wednesday after a better-than-expected rise in full-time positions.
Oil prices were higher. New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate for April delivery, gained 13 cents to $98.12 in mid-morning trade. Brent North Sea crude for April was up 29 cents at $108.31.
Gold fetched $1 372.96 an ounce at 02:50 GMT compared with $1 356.38 late on Wednesday.
