Indexes in Asia closed mixed on Friday after North Korea launched a missile in the direction of the east, although market reaction to the event was largely subdued.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index recouped 102.06 points or 0.5% to 19,909.50
The Hang Seng Index recovered 30.39 points, or 0.1%, to 27,807.59
The missile flew over Japan before landing 2,000 km east of Hokkaido, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK. Following the North's latest launch, South Korea has responded by firing its own missile into the sea.
The hermit state had warned through a state agency on Thursday that it would "sink" Japan. North Korea had fired another ballistic missile which passed over northern Japan before falling into the sea on Aug. 29.
However, the knee-jerk reaction to buy safe-haven currencies on the news unwound fairly quickly. The U.S. dollar rose to 110.68 yen by late Friday afternoon local time after falling as low as 109.54 earlier in the day. The greenback had fetched around 110.28 yen before news of the launch.
In equities, South Korea's benchmark Kospi index, finished the session higher despite coming under pressure earlier in the day. Defense names closed mixed after rising earlier in the session: Korea Aerospace closed up 1.3%, but Victek fell 5.9%. Samsung Electronics erased early losses to close 0.2% higher.
Down Under, indices moved south with the 1.9% fall in the materials sub-index weighing on the broader index. The heavily-weighted financials sub-index edged down 0.7%
In corporate news, the contest to buy Toshiba's memory chip unit plodded along. Toshiba said Thursday that Western Digital "persistently overstates" its rights over the Japanese company's flash memory unit. Still, Toshiba said in its statement that it was committed to selling Toshiba Memory Corporation by March 2018. Toshiba stock closed up 0.3%, as other Japanese tech stocks finished mostly higher after shrugging off North Korea jitters
CHINA
The CSI 300 eked up 1.34 points to 3,831.30
Meanwhile, bitcoin nursed its wounds after falling on Thursday when one of the largest exchanges in China announced it would stop all trading on Sept. 30. The cryptocurrency traded at $3,144.85 U.S. late afternoon locally, compared to a record high of $5,013.91 U.S. touched earlier in September.
In other markets
In Taiwan, the Taiex index gained 26.84 points, or 0.3%, to 10,580.41
In Korea, the Kospi index picked up 8.41 points, or 0.4%, to 2,386.07
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index fell 11.39 points, or 0.4%, to 3,209.56
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 slumped 56.58 points, or 0.7%, to 7,762.66
In Australia, the ASX 200 dipped 43.65 points, or 0.8% to 5,695.02
