Asia: Stocks in the red driven by weak Australian jobs data

Asian stocks were down on Thursday after disappointing data in Australia and weak investor’s sentiment among Chinese stocks.

Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.23% due to a strong yen, which was at ¥119.24 against the dollar.

On the bright side, services purchase managers’ index (PMI) rose to 51.3 in April from 48.4 the month before.

Looking at corporate news, Japanese telecommunications group Softbank was down 3.36% after managing issues in its Indian start-up.

The Shanghai composite index lost 2.77% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 1.27% ahead of Friday’s trade data.

Investors have warned that Chinese stocks will be hurt by weaker corporate profits growth and margin debt worries.

Morgan Stanley downgraded Chinese stocks for the first time in seven and half years.

"Dramatic recent outperformance has led to a deterioration in absolute and relative valuations and a technically overbought situation," the broker said.

Australia’s ASX also fell 0.82% following disappointing jobs and construction data.

Unemployment rose as expected to 6.2% in April from 6.1%. As a result, number of jobs declined by 2,9000 from an increase of 48,2000 jobs the month before.

Furthermore, performance of construction index fell to 47 points in April from 50.1 in March.

Following the Reserve Bank of Australia's interest rate cut earlier in the week, there was speculation that the central bank may put a stop to its easing cycle.

Meanwhile, gold prices were down 0.69% on sentiments of higher US real yields counteracting the effects of a relatively weaker dollar and persistent speculation on when the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in June.

As a result, Australian mining group BHP Billiton fell 1.82% despite Wednesday’s news that shareholders approved its South32 spin-off. Its mining sector rival Rio Tinto also lost 0.75%.