Hong Kong (AFP) - Asian stocks were mostly higher on Tuesday after a tech rally on Wall Street, but their gains remained modest in thin Christmas Eve trade.

Overnight, European stocks bounced around while US equities shook off early weakness to push higher as investors waited to see if a so-called Santa Claus rally would materialise.

US “stocks didn’t really have any direction in the morning, then we got this tech rally that just sort of drifted higher all day”, said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers.

Analysts said that could help boost semiconductor-related shares, including in Tokyo, although the key Nikkei index closed down 0.3 percent.

Hong Kong closed up 1.1 percent and Shanghai gained 1.3 percent. Singapore rose 0.5 percent and Bangkok was up 0.7 percent, while Seoul and Taipei were flat.

Hang Seng Bank said in a note that Hong Kong stocks were “consolidating before the long holiday”. It was among several exchanges, including Sydney, closing early on Tuesday.

“This is the time of the year when there’s a lot of noise and little to no signal in price action,” said Kyle Rodda, senior market analyst at Capital.Com, cited by Bloomberg News.

“There’s a high chance of a pretty slow day for the region and an uneventful rest of the week as a high proportion of the markets log off for the holidays.”

Despite the gains, Asian stocks faced downward pressure “as the Bank of Japan warned against foreign exchange speculation and Australia cut its iron ore price forecast”, Hang Seng Bank said.

Honda shares closed more than 12 percent higher after the Japanese auto giant announced a buyback of up to 1.1 trillion yen ($7 billion), as it enters merger talks with struggling rival Nissan.

The talks on collaboration between Honda and Nissan would create the world’s third-largest automaker, expanding development of EVs and self-driving tech.

Honda’s CEO insisted it was not a bailout for Nissan, which announced thousands of job cuts last month and reported a 93 percent plunge in first-half net profit.

- Key figures around 0700 GMT -

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.3 percent at 39,036.85 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 1.1 percent at 20,098.29 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 1.3 percent at 3,393.53

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0396 from $1.0408 on Monday

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2536 from $1.2531

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 157.05 yen from 157.14 yen

Euro/pound: DOWN at 82.94 pence from 83.03 pence

West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.4 percent at $69.53 per barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.4 percent at $72.95 per barrel

New York - Dow: UP 0.2 percent at 42,906.95 (close)

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 8,102.72 (close)