Japan equity markets rose on Friday as strong company earnings led by Nomura Holdings and Advantest Corp buoyed sentiment, but a selloff in index-heavyweight SoftBank Corp limited the gains.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index restored 68.17 points, or 0.4%, to end the week and the month at 17,674.39.
For the week, the Nikkei gained 0.9%, while it rose 1.3% for the month.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index moved lower 88.80 points, or 0.4%, following yesterday’s drop of more than 260 points, to 24,507.05.
The index lost 1.4% for the week but rose 3.8%for the month of January.
SoftBank fell 3.4% and contributed a hefty 28.74 negative points to the Nikkei after Alibaba Group Holding Ltd reported lower-than-expected revenues for the third quarter. SoftBank has a 32.6% stake in Alibaba.
Among the most actively traded stocks on Hong Kong's main board were Bank Of China, down 0.2%, Gome, down 0.9% and Time2U , unchanged.
CHINA
Chinese investment flowing from Shanghai into Hong Kong through the mutual market access pilot programme took up 0.51 billion yuan of the 10.5 billion yuan daily quota.
The Shanghai CS300 index lost 47.41 points, or 1.4%, to 3,434.39
In other markets;
The Kospi in Korea dipped 1.76 points, or 0.1%, to 1,949.26
In Taiwan, the Taiex index fell 64.99 points, or 0.7%, to 9,361.91
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index fell 27.85 points, or 0.8%, to 3,391.20
New Zealand’s NZX 50 index backtracked 15.82 points, or 0.3%, to 5,744
The S&P/ASX index improved 18.84 points, or 0.3%, to 5,588.32
