WPL Woodside Petroleum Limited

Markets in Asia were off to a weak start Wednesday, after oil prices slid to two-month lows and as investors stayed cautious before the Federal Reserve concludes a two-day policy meeting.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average was up 0.7%. South Korea's Kospi was off 0.1%

Australia's S&P ASX 200 was down 0.4%, as banks start to report earnings. Energy shares on the benchmark were off 0.7%, with Santos Ltd. down 3.4% and Woodside Petroleum Ltd. 3.6% lower.

Shares in the region have been lackluster this week, before the Fed concludes its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday. Although the central bank is widely expected to leave benchmark interest rates unchanged near zero, investors will parse the Fed's post-meeting statement for clues about the path of its monetary policy. Investors are also watching Japan's central bank for more easing after its policy meeting Friday.

"The questions that lingers is whether further central bank interventions in the next two weeks will have the same effect as what was seen after the right things were said by the [European Central Bank]," said Evan Lucas, market analyst with brokerage IG.

Comments from the ECB last week about possible easing in December sparked a rally across global equities, just before China's central bank cut interest rates late on Friday.

"The positive effects are becoming smaller," as questions emerge about whether easing has run its course amid slowing growth in emerging markets, he added.

The MSCI Asia Pacific closed Tuesday just off its highest level since mid-August. The benchmark, up 9.7% month-to-date, is on track for its largest monthly percentage gain since April 2009.

Overnight, U.S. stocks mostly fell as oil prices slumped and investors await the outcome of the Fed's meeting.

The Japanese yen was last at ¥ 120.51, roughly flat compared with its close in Asia on Tuesday. The currency traded as strong as Â¥ 120.14 against the dollar a day earlier, after news that a U.S. Navy ship sailed near artificial islands in the South China Sea claimed by China sent investors toward haven assets.

In Australia, shares of National Bank of Australia Ltd. were down 1.4%, after the firm unveiled a deal to sell control of its life-insurance business and plans to exit its U.K. business early next year. The firm also said its full year net profit rose 20% to 6.34 billion Australian dollars ($4.56 billion).

Shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. jumped 4.1% in New York, after the e-commerce giant reported a net profit for its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30 of $3.57 billion, more than seven times what it reported a year earlier, thanks largely to a one-off gain of $2.93 billion from the revaluation of a stake in Alibaba Health Information Technology.

The company also sounded a positive note about the Chinese economy. Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joe Tsai said wage growth and considerable savings would empower consumers even as the world's No. 2 economy slows to its lowest rate of growth since 2009.

Brent crude oil was up 0.5% at $47.03 a barrel. U.S. oil prices fell 2.3% overnight, on expectations that U.S. crude stockpiles grew for the fifth straight week last week.

Gold was flat at $1,166.70 a troy ounce.

Gillian Wong and Robb M. Stewart contributed to this article.

Write to Chao Deng at Chao.Deng@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 27, 2015 21:55 ET (01:55 GMT)

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