Asia: Stocks hurt by Greece payment delays, China enjoys seven-year highs

Most Asian stocks fell on Friday hurt by volatility in Europe after Greece missed the €300m payment it was due to make to the International Monetary Fund.

The Japanese Nikkei 225 closed down 0.44% as investors remained cautious over volatility in global bond yields.

However, the nation continued to be helped by a weak yen, which was at ¥124.76 against the dollar at 11:10 GMT.

In economic news, the Japanese coincident index rose to 111.1 points in April from 109.2, while the leading economic index increased to 107.2 from 106.

In China, the Shanghai composite index gained 1.52% at 5022.17 points, topping the 500 level for the first time in seven years.

Capital Economics said deflation concerns are "overplayed" and "with the price of most commodities now stabilising, and in many cases rebounding, producer price inflation looks set to bottom out soon".

Despite Chinese gains, Hong Kong's Hang Seng continued to be on the red closing down 0.47%.

HSBC, which plans to move its headquarters back to Hong Kong, lost 1% following news it has been fined £27.8m by Swiss authorities over money-laundering claims related to the bank’s Swiss division.

Read more: HSBC fined £27.8m in Swiss money-laundering probe

Elsewhere in Australia, the ASX index was also down 0.11% as performance data from AiG showed the construction sector continued to contract in May at 47.8, despite seeing an improvement from the previous month's reading of 47 points.

Accendo Markets economists said the index "looks headed for its biggest weekly loss in two years".

In the corporate world, Australian media company Nine Entertainment fell 0.25% after downgrading its forecasts for the full-year due to a soft adversiting market.