Asian shares advance despite weaker factory data, outbreaks

BANGKOK — Shares were mostly higher in Asia on Wednesday despite new data showing factory activity slowed this month as virus outbreaks disrupted shipping at some Chinese ports.

Markets advanced in Shanghai, Sydney and Seoul but slipped in Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Japan, South Korea, and China all released data that “erred on the side of slightly disappointing,” Jeffrey Halley of OANDA said in a commentary, adding that “it looks like softening demand from key export markets, exacerbated by chip shortages and logistic logjams, are muting orders across many sectors.”

Japan’s industrial output fell 5.9% in June from the month before while South Korean production fell 0.7%.

A key measure of Chinese factory activity, the purchasing managers index, remained just barely in a state of expansion.

Pandemic precautions due to outbreaks of coronavirus at some ports in southern China have been…