Asian equities bounced back in afternoon trade after reacting to the release of key Chinese data that were mostly in line with expectations.
Chinese stocks jumped in late trade, with the Shanghai composite up 3 percent and the Shenzhen composite gaining 2.89 percent, after opening cautiously. China's gross domestic product data came in mostly in line, with the world's second-largest economy growing by 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015, slipping by 0.1 percent from the third quarter's 6.9 percent growth. Full-year growth came in at 6.9 percent, down from 2014's 7.3 percent and the slowest pace of economic expansion since 1990.
While manufacturing growth slowed to 6.0 percent in 2015 from 2014's 7.3 percent, the services sector expanded by 8.3 percent last year, up from 2014's 7.8 percent.
Retail sales also fell slightly short of expectations for December, climbing 11.1 percent on-year, compared with a forecast for 11.3 percent and slightly weaker than November's 11.2 percent rise.
Acceptable Data
According to Jahangir Aziz, head of emerging Asia economic research at JPMorgan, "These are good numbers. We've known for the last three years that the Chinese authorities are slowing down the economy. This economy is going to slow down."
Before market open, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) fixed its dollar-yuan mid-point at 6.5596, keeping it stable following the previous session's fix of 6.5590.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 wavered between gains and losses throughout the session before closing up 92.80 points, or 0.55 percent, at 17,048.37. At yesterday's close, the index was down some 18.74 percent from its 52-week high of 20,868.03, set in June 2015.
The Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 0.78 percent.