The major Asian markets ended Friday's session mixed despite the U.S. markets rising on Wednesday ahead of a holiday. Significant uncertainty remains over the time frame of an economic recovery even after the downturn has extended for more than a year now. The markets are unlikely to see significant momentum until visibility improves. Promise of governmental assistance helped the Japanese and Taiwanese markets, with the Japanese Nikkei 225 average rising to a 6-week high. While the Chinese market ended nearly flat, the South Korean market closed lower. The Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australian markets were closed today.
The Japanese market closed Friday's session higher, as the market benefited from the buoyant closing of Wall Street shares on Wednesday. The market chose to ignore economic reports that accentuated the weakness of the domestic economy. A government announcement, offering subsidies to solar power-related manufacturers, also supported buying.
The key index rose for the second straight session, although it has been down about 43% since the beginning of the year.
Crude oil futures advanced in Asian trading after they came under significant selling pressure on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the yen showed a choppy trend against most other majors.
Japan's Nikkei 225 average opened modestly higher and advanced over the course of trading to close the session at 8,740, representing a gain of 140.02 points or 1.63%. A majority of the stocks advanced in the session.
Nitto Boseki rallied 17.32%after the company announced yesterday that it would buy back 4 billion yen worth of shares. Automakers also rallied strongly in the session.
In the commodity space, Nippon Oil rose 3.73% and refiner Inpex Holdings climbed 2.30%. Asahi Glass advanced 4.51% on reports that company will invest in the production of solar cells, while Fukuoka Financial jumped 6.50%. Mitsubishi Materials, Mitsubishi Rayon, Mitsubishi Chemicals, Softbank and Tosoh gained in excess of 5% each. However, Citizen Holdings declined 7.23% and JFE Holdings slid 5.66%
On the economic front, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry released the preliminary industrial production report for November, showing an 8.1% month-over-month drop in industrial output. The shipment index fell 8.4% compared to a 0.7% increase in the inventories index. According to the ministry's survey, production is expected to dip 8% in December, with the decline moderating to a 2.1% drop in January.
Meanwhile, Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication released three separate reports today. The consumer price inflation report showed a further moderation in inflationary pressures. Japan's consumer price index as well as core consumer price index, which exclude fresh food, climbed at an annual rate of 1% in November compared to 1.9% growth in the previous month.
A separate report released by the agency showed that consumer spending per household with two or more persons declined 0.5% year-over-year in real terms, while average amount of monthly income per household fell 0.3%. The ministry's labor force survey revealed that the unemployment rate was at 3.9% in November, worse than the month-ago reading of 3.7%.
South Korea's Kospi opened marginally higher and reversed course immediately after the open. Subsequently, the index remained below the unchanged line for most of the reminder of the session to end down 10.65 points or 0.94% at 1,118.
Institutional and foreign investors were net sellers of shares, while retail investors were net buyers. Steel makers and shipbuilding stocks saw significant weakness, with Samsung Heavy Industries and Posco falling 4.1% and 2.3%, respectively.
After seeing some early weakness, the Taiwanese TSEC Weighted index advanced within the first hour of trading and reached the day's high in late morning trading. Although the index gave back much of its early gains over the course of trading, it closed up 11.63 points or 0.26% at 4,425.
The Taiwanese government announced today that it would help flat-panel manufacturers overcome the economic slowdown. AU Optronics and Chi Mei Optoelectronics advanced about 2.5% and 3%, respectively in reaction to the announcement.
Meanwhile, China's Shanghai Composite Index showed significant volatility throughout the session before closing almost flat at 1,852. The index eased merely 0.90 points or 0.05%.
Market breadth was negative, with 521 decliners compared to 259 gainers, while 74 stocks ended unchanged. Property stocks were mostly lower, while financial and securities stocks showed mixed sentiment. Oil producer PetroChina rose about 0.50% and refiner Sinopec moved up 0.37%.
India's Sensex Index ended lower even after a report showed that inflationary pressures waned further. Preliminary estimates showed that the index ended down about 234.92 points or 2.46% at 9,569. IT, capital goods, realty and metal stocks acted as big drags on the index.
Inflation data released by the Indian government showed that the index of wholesale inflation eased further to 6.61% in the week ended December 13th from 6.84% a week earlier due to a tax cut on manufactured products and cheaper fuels.
Among the other markets in the region, which were open, Singapore's Straits Time Index ended modestly lower, while Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index advanced modestly.
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May 01, 2026 15:54 ET Central banks dominated the economics news flow this week with almost all major ones announcing their latest policy decisions and many boosted expectations for a rate hike in June. In other news, several countries released the preliminary data for first quarter economic growth. In the U.S., comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell were also in focus as his term ends this month.