Asian stock indices increased following the U.S. stock markets.

All industry activity index in Japan climbed 1.5% in March from a 1.1% decrease in February, missing analysts’ forecast of a 1.6% rise.

Indexes on the close:

Nikkei 225                      14,075.25              +68.81        +0.49%

Hang Seng                      22,834.68            +130.18        +0.57%

Shanghai Composite       2,008.12                +2.94        +0.15%

Yahoo Japan Corp. shares climbed 12% after the company cancelled plans to acquire eAccess from SoftBank Corp.