Asian markets have made a mixed start on Friday tailing the overnight cues from the US counterparts, and while the Japanese markets rose for a second day, paring a weekly decline, the Chinese market was in somber mood after the country’s producer prices slumped more than estimated in April and are in the midst of the longest decline since a 31-month period from 1997. The consumer price index rose 1.8 percent from a year earlier in April, compared with 2.4 percent gain in March. Inflation has remained at least one percentage point below the government’s full-year target of 3.5 percent every month this year. In other Asia Pacific stocks, Hong Kong’s HangSeng was trading flat and the Taiwanese market was in red.
Shanghai Composite was down by 6.88 points or 0.34% to 2,008.39, Hang Seng was marginally down by 0.88 points to 21,836.24, Taiwan Weighted was down by 38.31 points or 0.43% to 8,892.59.
On the other hand, Nikkei 225 was up by 55.34 points or 0.39% to 14,219.12, Straits Times gained 2.52 points or 0.07% to 3,250.11, Seoul Composite was up by 1.30 points or 0.07% to 1,951.90 and Jakarta Composite added 9.31 points or 0.19% to 4,870.20.