Asian stock markets look for direction after Japanese data mixed
Trading in Asian stock markets was mixed on the last day of March, as investors digested economic data from East Asia and US President Donald Trump's tense tweets about a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping next week, cnbc.com reported.
In Sydney, the ASX 200 index wavered and was trading down 0.02 per cent.
Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 0.66 per cent, supported by the weaker yen.
Japan's core consumer prices rose 0.2 per cent in February from a year earlier, marking the fastest growth in nearly two years. But household spending fell 3.8 per cent in February from a year earlier, missing estimates for a 1.7 per cent fall.
Meanwhile, Japan's February jobless rate declined to 2.8 per cent, its lowest rate since June 1994, and marked an improvement in the labor market.
The atmosphere was tense among Toshiba shareholders at the extraordinary general meeting on Thursday after they agreed to split off its prized NAND flash memory unit, to cover its US subsidiary's multibillion-dollar losses.
In earlier trading on Friday, Toshiba shares rose 3.81 per cent, but the stock has lost 14.6 per cent this year.
In South Korea, the Kospi Index slipped 0.03 per cent, after the country's February factory output fell 3.4 per cent from the previous month, the worst in over eight years. A Reuters poll had expected industrial output for last month to be flat.
A South Korean court approved a warrant to arrest ousted president Park Geun-hye, over accusations of bribery and abuse of power.
The Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.27 per cent and the Shenzhen Composite added 0.28 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.53 per cent.
