Asia-Pacific markets were mostly flat on Friday against an also muted Wall Street looking to revive its recent market rally.
The Nikkei 225 eased 11.81 points to 28,930.33.
Japan’s July headline inflation has risen to 2.6% from 2.4% in June. That was above expectations of 2.2% and higher than the Bank of Japan’s goal of 2.0%.
Compared to a lackluster start to the week, Japanese stocks were buoyant. Nissan rose 1.3% while Nikon Corp was trading higher by over 3%. Sony and Olympus were also ahead by between 2%.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index regained 9.12 points, or 0.1%, to 19,773.03.
There was positive action from Tencent, up 0.8% but food delivery giant, Meituan was down more than 0.7%. This week, Tencent denied offloading its stake in Meituan.
After Tencent’s second quarter revenue slide earlier this week, fellow tech giant NetEase offered the markets a sweetener posting a nearly 13% year-on-year increase in its second quarter net revenue, beating expectations. But its share price finished more than 6% lower.
In other markets
In Shanghai, the CSI 300 fell 29.03 points, or 0.7%, to 4,151.07.
In Taiwan, the Taiex regained 12.02 points, or 0.1%, to 15,408.78
In Korea, the Kospi index dropped 15.36 points, or 0.6%, to 2,492.69
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index lost 26.97 points, or 0.8%, to 3,246.51.
In Australia, the ASX 200 squeezed up 1.68 points to 7,114.46.
In New Zealand, the NZX fell 129.53 points, or 1.1%, to 11,684.81
