Hong Kong shares surge as Alibaba pops nearly 6%; Asia markets mostly slide

This is CNBC's live blog covering Asia-Pacific markets.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index surged almost 2%, powered by tech stocks as other Asia-Pacific markets mostly fell.

The Hang Seng Tech index jumped almost 3%, led by a 5.84% gain by tech giant Alibaba after founder Jack Ma reportedly bought $50 million of Alibaba shares listed in Hong Kong. The mainland Chinese CSI 300 was up 0.3%.

Investors are also assessing economic data out of Japan, as well as factory activity data from Australia.

Japan's December exports beat expectations, with its trade balance turning in a $62.1 billion surplus compared with a $122.1 billion deficit expected by a Reuters poll of economists. The data comes a day after the Bank of Japan left its monetary policy unchanged.

Australia also saw flash PMI surveys from Juno Bank, which showed an expansion in manufacturing activity in January after 11 straight months of contraction. Business activity in the country also saw a softer contraction in January compared to December.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 inched up marginally after the announcement, extending its three-day winning streak.

Japan's Nikkei 225 slid 0.26%, extending its losses from Tuesday, while the Topix saw a smaller loss of 0.15%.

South Korea's Kospi fell 0.43%, with heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix recording the largest losses among the top 10 stocks on the benchmark index. The small-cap Kosdaq also fell 1.35%

Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 gained 0.29% to set a fresh all-time high of 4,864.60 as traders assessed the latest batch of corporate earnings.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.43%, but the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average snapped a three day winning streak and fell 0.25%, retreating below the