There were scattered results on Japan's leading stock exchanges in early Friday trading.
By lunchtime, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 0.4 percent, while Shanghai's and Shenzhen's composite index had fallen by 0.4 and 0.6 percent, respectively.
In Tokyo, the situation looked slightly brighter. Both the important Nikkei 225 and the broader Topix index were up 0.8 percent.
