Asia: Nikkei rises on weak yen, Chinese stocks hurt by energy prices

Asian equities market closed on a mixed note on Thursday, with Japanese stocks rising on US economic optimism and a weaker yen.

The Nikkei 225 was up 0.24% as the Japanese currency fell to a two-month low against the dollar fetching ¥124.9.

The stocks were helped by prospects for corporate earnings following expectations of a September rate hike from the US Federal Reserve.

Japanese automatic group Fanuc gained 3.06%, but the retail company Fast Retailing continued to fall by 2.15% one day after announcing its Uniqlo brand saw its store sales fall in July by 1.5% year-on-year.

In terms of economic data, the leading economic index rose to 107.2 in June from 106.2 and the coincident index increased to 112 points from 109.2 one month earlier.

Looking ahead, the Bank of Japan is due to start its monthly two-day meeting.

On a more negative note, the Shanghai composite index fell 0.88% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost 0.56% hurt by weak energy prices.

Government's intervention to prop up stock prices was also losing momentum, one day after the International Monetary Fund's decision to delay the addition of the yuan to its benchmark currency basket until after September 2016.

The fund said it would now wait until China had made a push to add the yuan to the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights basket as a way of reducing its dependence on the dollar.

Following weak energy prices, PetroChina decreased 1.41%, despite winning a dismissal of securities lawsuit in US this week.

Its supplier Wilson Engineering Services was found guilty of bribery and was forced to pay $4.83m to the Chinese government.

In Australia, the ASX index fell 1.31% hurt by an increase in unemployment. The number of people without a job rose to 6.3% in July against expectations of 6%.

Participation rate, the percentage of the total number of people in the labour force, rose to 65.1% from 64.8%. However, this was lower than forecasts of 64.8%.

On the bright side, still in economic data, the Aussie economy added 38,500 new jobs in July, a significantly higher number than forecasts of 15,000.

Meanwhile, Australian oil companies Woodside Petroleum and Santos continued to be hurt by low energy prices, extending losses of 1.15% and 2.54% respectively.