PTR Petrochina Company Ltd

Shares in Asia were choppy Tuesday, largely due to falling commodities prices, though Japanese stocks surged after officials warned that the government could intervene against a sharp rise in the yen.

Commodities continued their selloff, with rebar futures falling more than 6% and iron ore futures down about 5%.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average advanced 1.5%, Korea's Kospi was up 0.4%, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3%.

In China, the Shanghai Composite Index was flat. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was off 0.4%.

Japanese finance minister Taro Aso said Tuesday it would be "natural" for the government to intervene if the yen were to gain abruptly against the U.S. dollar. A strong local currency puts pressure on the earnings of exporters because it can make their goods more expensive overseas.

The Japanese yen weakened overnight but was steady in early Asia trading. The dollar was recently at ¥ 108.77.

The weaker yen appeared to encourage investors, and Japanese stocks rose on the back of the dollar's modest recovery, said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management.

In the Philippines, stocks were lower after early election results showed presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte ahead by a wide margin. The benchmark PSEi index was recently down 0.4%.

The Philippine peso was strengthening more than its Asian peers, and was last at 46.9295 per dollar.

"Investors are still waiting for a pronouncement from Mayor Duterte on who his economic team will be and on his economic program," said Astro del Castillo, managing director of First Grade Holdings, a financial advisory firm.

Elsewhere, Chinese stocks were choppy after data showed consumer inflation rose 2.3% in April from a year earlier, nearly in line with analysts' expectations.

A selloff in Chinese commodities futures also resumed Tuesday, as weak sentiment in the spot market rolled over into futures markets. In Shanghai, the most actively traded steel rebar futures contract fell 6.4%, while iron ore futures trade down 5.3% to 382.5 yuan a ton.

Regulators have been installing measures to curb speculation on certain commodities.

In other markets, an overnight slump in commodities prices squeezed energy shares in the Asia-Pacific region. In Australia, BHP Billiton Ltd. tanked 4.8%, and Rio Tinto Ltd. tumbled 4%. In Hong Kong, PetroChina Co. Ltd. lost 1.7%.

Brent crude oil prices were last at $43.62 per barrel.

Some investors are seeing tepid markets as an opportunity to bank profits from the rally earlier this year, said Margaret Yang, a market analyst for CMC Markets Singapore.

"The market sentiment overall is quite pessimistic," Ms. Yang said. "May might be a good time to take profit. Since we have rallied so much in the first quarter, we might see some selling pressure in the second quarter."

Kosaku Narioka, Gregor Stuart Hunter, Cris Larano and Yifan Xie contributed to this article.

Write to Dominique Fong at Dominique.Fong@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 10, 2016 00:25 ET (04:25 GMT)

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