Asian markets: Shanghai Composite gains following positive US data

The data revealed that the world's largest economy was doing well with regards to durable goods orders, pending home sales and initial jobless claims. However, the capital goods orders data and the Kansas City Fed manufacturing survey turned out to be weak.

Bernard Aw, market analyst at IG in Singapore said: "The markets have been attentive to clues on US economic conditions. Positive data will signal that conditions may be ripe for a rate hike as soon as in the June Federal Open Market Committee (meeting)." Going forward, he said: "Market participants will be hyper-sensitive to US data, with next week's inflation data and employment data to be scrutinized."

Investors are said to be keenly awaiting Fed Chair Janet Yellen's speech at Harvard University. Investors hope the speech would give them clues about a Fed rate hike, which has been hinted at by a few other policy makers, to take place as early as June. Kathy Lien, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asset Management, opined: "Given the uniformity of comments from policymakers, we don't think Yellen will throw cold water on rate hike expectations and could in fact reinforce them."

Indices in rest of Asia traded as follows on 27 May at 6.21am GMT:

Overnight (26 May), the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 17,828.29, down 0.13%, while the FTSE 100 closed at 6,265.65, up 0.04%.

Among commodities, oil prices slipped after crossing $50 (£34.10,€44.68) a barrel for the first time in seven months. On 27 May, WTI crude oil was trading 0.75% lower at $49.11a barrel, while Brent was trading 0.81% lower at $49.19 a barrel at 6.28am GMT.