Beijing, Feb. 12 -- Asian stocks rose Tuesday following a listless day on Wall Street as investors looked ahead to U.S.-Chinese trade talks.

KEEPING SCORE: Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose 2 percent to 20,745.28 and the Shanghai Composite Exchange added 0.3 percent to 2,661.89. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was 1.5 points higher at 28,122.41 and Seoul's Kospi gained 0.3 percent to 2,188.32. Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 advanced 0.2 percent to 6,073.60 and New Zealand, Taiwan and Malaysia also rose. Manila and Jakarta declined.

WALL STREET: Gains for industrial companies, banks and energy stocks outweighed losses elsewhere. Small-company stocks fared better as investors shifted focus away from the tail end of a strong corporate earnings season to U.S.-Chinese tr...