• Japan's retail sales rose 5.2% in March as compared with a year ago, according to government data.
• Australia's consumer price index rose 0.6% in the first quarter, according to data released by the country's Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.
• Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba jumped 2.3% on Wednesday.. The gains came despite a Wall Street Journal report that China is investigating how Jack Ma got speedy approvals for Alibaba-affiliate Ant Group's stock listing last year.

SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed on Wednesday after a slew of economic data.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.21% to close at 29,053.97 while the Topix index gained 0.29% to finish its trading day at 1,909.06.

Japan's retail sales rose 5.2% in March as compared with a year ago, according to government data. That was higher than a median market forecast for a 4.7% gain, according to Reuters.

The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia advanced 0.44% to end the trading day at 7,064.70. Australia's consumer price index rose 0.6% in the first quarter, according to data released by the country's Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday. That was lower than expectations in a Reuters poll for a 0.9% increase from the previous quarter.

Mainland Chinese stocks closed higher as the Shanghai composite advanced 0.42% to 3,457.07 while the Shenzhen component gained 0.942% to 14,398.38.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.45% to close at 29,071.34. Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba jumped 2.3% on Wednesday despite a Wall Street Journal report that China is investigating how its founder Jack Ma managed to get speedy approvals for Alibaba-affiliate Ant Group's stock listing last year.

South Korea's Kospi slipped 1.06% on the day to 3,181.47.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan stood little changed.

Major indexes on Wall Street were muted overnight stateside. The S&P 500 closed little changed at 4,186.72 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average also finished its trading day largely flat at 33,984.93. The Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.34% to close at 14,090.22.

Currencies and oil

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 91.004 after seeing levels below 90.9 earlier in the trading week.

The Japanese yen traded at 108.91 per dollar, having weakened notably from levels below 108 against the greenback seen earlier in the trading week. The Australian dollar was at $0.7745 after yesterday's decline from around $0.78.

Oil prices were lower n the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures near flat at $66.40 per barrel. U.S. crude futures also hovering near the flatline at $62.97 per barrel.

Correction: This article was updated to reflect that China's reported investigation is related to Ant Group's listing.