Asia: Stocks mixed amid Eurozone uncertainty

The Japanese index was back in positive territory on Friday but the Chinese market remained in the red.

The Nikkei 225 ended the week up 0.82%, marginally reversing Thursday’s dip as Eurozone woes and mixed signals from China continue to hound investor sentiment. The uptick in Japanese stocks was largely driven by a weaker yen, with a dollar fetching ¥117.32 at 12:23 GMT.

However, both Hong Kong and Shanghai indices ended the week lower with SSE Composite Index and Hang Seng closing down 1.93% and 0.35% respectively. Elsewhere, Australia's ASX continued to rise by 0.16% after the Reserve Bank of Australia decided to cut its interest rates this week to a record low of 2.25% in a bid to stimulate economic growth.

Friday’s close marked the worst week for Chinese stocks since May on fears about perceived Eurozone woes and a deepening economic slowdown.

Greece’s new finance minister Yanis Varoufakis urged Germany to help end the "gross indignity" of the Greek debt crisis. Following talks with his German counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble, Varoufakis said "too much time, hopes, lives" had been wasted by Greece's forced austerity programme.

However, Schaeuble sounded nonplussed saying both parties had “agreed to disagree” on most points and urged Greece to respect its debt obligations. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank has decided to lift its waiver on using Greek government debt as collateral for lending to its banks.

Away from Greece, mixed data from China is also hurting regional markets. Official figures published last month revealed China had missed its GDP growth target of 7.5% for the first time in 15 years, falling just short at 7.4% on an annualised basis.

Better than expected US non-farm payroll data arrived too late to lend support to Asian markets. The data release, which followed the Asian markets close, saw US employers add 257,000 jobs beating average market expectations for 230,000 jobs.