Asian markets ended mixed on Friday in cautious trade as investors digested a mixed set of US earnings and awaited the release of US first-quarter gross domestic product data due out later in the day for directional cues. Chinese shares ended down as concern deepened about the prospect of the government scaling back stimulus. Japanese shares ended slightly lower as the country heads into its 10-day Golden Week holiday beginning this weekend. A raft of mixed local economic data also weighed on markets. Retail sales in Japan rose 0.2% sequentially in March, a government report showed. That beat expectations for a flat reading and was down from the 0.4% increase in February. Industrial output fell 0.9% on month in the month, missing expectations for a flat reading following the 0.7% increase in February. Overall consumer prices in the Tokyo area were up an annual 1.4% in April, while the jobless rate came in at a seasonally adjusted 2.5% in March. Furthermore, Seoul shares declined on economic worries after data on Thursday showed the country's GDP shrank the most in a decade in the first quarter of 2019.
Asian Indices | Last Trade | Change in Points | Change in % |
Shanghai Composite | 3,086.40 | -37.43 | -1.20 |
Hang Seng | 29,605.01 | 55.21 | 0.19 |
Jakarta Composite | 6,401.08 | 28.29 | 0.44 |
KLSE Composite | 1,638.38 | 2.70 | 0.17 |
Nikkei 225 | 22,258.73 | -48.85 | -0.22 |
Straits Times | 3,356.95 | 6.67 | 0.20 |
KOSPI Composite | 2,179.31 | -11.19 | -0.51 |
Taiwan Weighted | 10,952.47 | -87.39 | -0.79 |
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