Asia markets mixed; Yen surges

Asian markets were trading mixed in the morning session despite overnight rally on Wall Street; strengthening Yen played a spoilsport, while petroleum product price surge boosted the indices.

US markets scaled to five-and-a-half month high driven by expectation of quantitative easing two, paving a way for rally in commodities. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.28%, to 11,164.05. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 0.21%, to 1,185.62, highest since May 3. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.46%, to 2,490.85.

Investors are betting that US Federal Reserve will print more money to buy government bonds; declining greenback is weighing on Emerging Market currencies, especially Yen. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average was down 0.2%, exporters were leading the losses on rising Yen. South Korea's Seoul Composite, and Taiwan Weighted were flat.

Hong Kong shares were volatile, refiners surged after China raised prices of petroleum-product prices but Chalco (Aluminum Corporation of China) dipped after reporting a quarterly loss. China's Shanghai Composite was trading flat.