Mixed performance on Asian stock exchanges

The leading Asian stock exchanges began Thursday's trading in different directions after Wall Street largely increased.

In Tokyo, both the important Nikkei 225 index and the broader Topix index had risen by 0.5 percent each by lunchtime.

It was gloomier in Hong Kong, where the Hang Seng index fell by 0.8.

Nor were there any cheerful tones from the composite indexes in Shanghai and Shenzhen, which fell by 0.4 and 1.5, respectively.