Asian stocks ended mixed after a volatile session Thursday, with indexes in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney and Singapore wavering between gains and losses as investors weighed the Federal Reserve's half-point reduction in a key interest rate overnight and the health of the U.S. economy.
In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei stock index rose 1.9 percent to 13,592 points. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.8 percent to 23,456.
Toyota Motor Corp. jumped 5.4 percent and Nissan Motor Co. rose 1.1 percent.
Matsushita Electric Co. surged 8.7 percent after the company said it had settled semiconductor patent lawsuits with Samsung Electronics Co. in the U.S. and Japan. After the market closed, Matsushita, which makes the Panasonic brand, said its profit in the most recent quarter had climbed 46 percent.
China's Shanghai Composite rose as high as 4,487.32, but couldn't sustain the gains as investor sentiment remained weak in the wake of brutal weather conditions in south and central China, which has affected tens of millions of people in the country. The index finally ended 0.8% lower at 4,383.39.
Elsewhere:
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.6%.
South Korea's Kospi jumped 2.2% to 1,624.68.
New Zealand's NZX 50 index dropped 0.7% to 3,670.64.
Taiwan's Weighted index fell 0.3% to 7,521.13.
Singapore's Straits Times Index added 0.2% to 3,005.60 by late afternoon.
with files from other services
