Gloomy on Asian Stock Exchanges

There were slightly gloomy faces on Asia's leading stock exchanges at the beginning of the last trading day of the week.

By lunchtime on Friday, the important Nikkei 225 in Tokyo had decreased by 0.2 percent, while the broader Topix index had lost just over 0.1 percent.

The figures also showed red in Hong Kong. The Hang Seng index had fallen by 0.8 percent.

The composite indices in Shanghai and Shenzhen were both down 0.2 percent.