Asia: Japanese stocks up amid weaker yen, China down on mixed data

Stocks in Asia closed on mixed note as oil prices plunged over Tuesday's session following news that Iran and the six world powers with whom it was negotiating had reached an agreement on the country’s nuclear programme.

While Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 1.47% with stocks remaining higher thanks to a weak yen and optimism from Greece driving capital back into equities. The currency was at ¥123.46 against the dollar.

Shares in China fell after a three-day winning streak. The Shanghai composite index was down 1.17% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.66%.

However, casino stocks jumped as reports suggested the Macau government will allow smoking in VIP rooms in casinos.
As a result, Galaxy Entertainment gained 3.8% and Melco Entertainment rose 4.5%.

In economic data, China’s total aggregate financing rose to RMB1.86trn in June, beating expectations of a rise to RMB1.4trn.

Foreign reserves fell by $3.69bn in June from $3730bn, but Capital Economics analysts said the data was "consistent with a stepped up pace of policy support".

"Looking ahead, we expect the step-up in policy support over the past couple of quarters to continue to help shore up credit growth in coming months," they added.

China’s state-owned Tsinghua Unigroup reportedly plans to offer $23bn for US chipmaker Micron Technology, in a deal that would be the biggest Chinese takeover of a US company.

Elsewhere in Australia, the ASX index was also higher 1.9% amid an increase in the National Australia Bank's business conditions to 11 in June from 6 in May. Business confidence also rose from 8 to 10 points.

In corporate news, miner BHP Billiton fell 1.04% after reporting that director Sir John Buchanan had died on Monday, having served on the board from 2003 up until the time of his death.