Investing.com - Asian shares mostly gained Thursday, though Shanghai eased as markets moved away from regional factors and looked ahead to French polls at the weekend.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index climbed 0.24%.
On the economic front, Japan reported that March exports rose 12% on year, against a 6.% increase projected by analysts for the fourth consecutive month of gains, while imports rose 15.8%, well above the 10.4% increase seen. The trade surplus came in at ¥615 billion yen, wider than the ¥576 billion yen increase seen.
As well, Japan's Finance Minister, Taro Aso, said on Wednesday there would be "various problems" if the Bank of Japan resorted to helicopter money as this would undermine the central bank's independence.
The S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.15%. On Thursday, Australian miner Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) shares jumped 1% in early trade after it cut its copper production target due to a strike at the Escondida copper mine in Chile and the ongoing shutdown at the Grasberg mine in Indonesia in its first quarter production report, which also showed that bad weather had weighed on production from its Western Australian iron ore operations and its bauxite business in Queensland.
Markets in greater China were mixed with the Shanghai Composite eased 0.07% and the Hang Seng Index rose 0.40%.
Overnight, U.S. stocks were mixed after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Healthcare, Industrials and Consumer Services sectors led shares higher while losses in the Oil & Gas, Utilities and Consumer Goods sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.58% to hit a new 1-month low, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.17%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.23%.