Asian indexes closed mixed on Thursday as the dollar extended gains and investors digested China manufacturing and services Purchasing Managers Indexes, as well as solid U.S. economic data.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index vaulted 139.7 points, or 0.7%, to 19,646.24, with gains seen across automakers and most tech stocks, as the U.S. dollar strengthened against the yen.
The Hang Seng Index dropped 124.31 points, or 0.4%, to 27,970.30
In corporate news, Toshiba's attempt to sell its memory chip unit was back in the spotlight after media outlets reported a consortium led by Bain Capital had made a last-minute bid of around $18 billion U.S. Apple and South Korea's SK Hynix are part of the consortium
Media outlets reported on Thursday that Toshiba failed in meeting its Aug. 31 deadline to secure an agreement with another consortium involving Western Digital and would continue talks. Toshiba's stock closed down 0.7%
Against the Japanese currency, the U.S. dollar rose to its highest levels in around two weeks. The dollar last fetched 110.44 yen, a touch below a high of 110.60 reached earlier in the session.
The dollar had earlier dipped following the release of Japan July industrial production on Thursday. Industrial output slipped 0.8%, compared with the previous month, slightly more than the fall of 0.5% forecast.
Despite largely solid economic data releases, geopolitical uncertainties continued to linger in the background, OCBC Treasury Research said in a note, citing a tweet from President Donald Trump that was critical of dialogue with North Korea. The tweet came after North Korea launched a missile that flew over Japan on Tuesday.
Other market movers included a 3.5% drop in the stock of South Korean automaker Kia Motors. Kia was ordered on Thursday to pay 420 billion won ($374 million U.S.) in unpaid wages by a court.
Meanwhile, Australian retailer Harvey Norman shares plunged 7.5% by the end of the session after it declared a smaller dividend this year.
The company also announced full-year profit for the year ending on Jun. 30 rose to A$448.98 million ($355 million U.S.), above estimates of around A$414 million
In other economic news, South Korea's central bank kept its policy rate unchanged at 1.25%, as was widely expected.
Australian markets demonstrated strength as the tail-end of earnings reporting season approached, driven by strength across most sectors, with the heavily-weighted financials sub-index rising 0.7%.
CHINA
The CSI 300 lost 12.21 points, or 0.3%, to 3,822.09
China's official manufacturing PMI rose to 51.7 in August, beating the 51.3 forecast. Meanwhile, the official services PMI dropped to 53.4 in August, compared with 54.5 a month earlier. The August number was the lowest since May 2016
Shares of major China's largest banks were lower despite reporting solid earnings and narrowing non-performing loan ratios. Shares of Bank of China traded in Hong Kong erased earlier gains to fall 0.7%. Other names also traded lower: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China sank 2.8% and Agricultural Bank of China slid 1.9% Shares of the banks listed on the mainland also sold off.
The Australian dollar, often sensitive to Chinese economic data, dipped as low as $0.7884 U.S. following the release after trading around the $0.791 handle ahead of the data release. The currency recovered later to fetch $0.7902 U.S. late in the trading day, a tad above Wednesday's close of $0.7898.
In other markets
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index gained 12 points, or 0.4%, to 3,277.26
In Taiwan, the Taiex index tacked on 16.38 points, or 0.2%, to 10,585.78
In Korea, the Kospi index fell 9.1 points, or 0.4%, to 2,363.19
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 added 41.9 points, or 0.5%, to 7,817.10
In Australia, the ASX 200 grew 44.8 points, or 0.8%, to 5,714.52
