Asian Stocks Mostly Subdued In Thin Trading

(RTTNews) - Withe most of the markets in the region closed for Christmas, the mood in Japanese and Chinese markets remains somewhat subdued on Thursday. Shares of insurance companies are faring well in Shanghai, while it's a mixed performance by stocks in the Japanese market.

The Japanese market's benchmark Nikkei 225 edged up marginally on Thursday, recovering a bit previous session's marginal decline.

Trading volume was thin in the morning session with traders making cautious moves, waiting from the Cabinet's approval of the nation's Fiscal 2026 budget on Friday.

At the end of the morning session, the Nikkei 225 was up 5.54 points or 0.01% at 50,349.64, coming off an early high of 50,510.11.

Among the major gainers, Sumco climbed more than 4%. Rakuten, Keisei Electric Company, CyberAgent, Mercari Inc., Nippon Paper, Shionogi and Daiichi Sankyo gained 2 to 3.1%.

Ajinomoto, Panasonic, Renesas Electron, Odakyu Electric Railway, Sekisui House, Dentsu, Mazda Motor, Toto and Keio were among the other notable gainers.

Toho Zinc tumbled more than 7%. Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding, Kawasaki and Fujikura lost 2.5 to 3.4%.

Furukwawa Electric, Ebara, Advantest, Sumitomo Metal Mining, Resonac Holdings, Furukawa and Japan Steel Works also drifted lower.

The Chinese stock market, which is the only other exchange where trading is on today, was modestly higher a few minutes before the close of the morning session.

The Shanghai Composite Index, which opened slightly down, advanced to 3,952.70, gaining 11.75 points or 0.3%.

Foxconn Industrial Internet, China Life Insurance, Ping An Insurance, Hygon Information Technologies, People's Insurance Co., China Pacific Insurance, MetaX Integrated Circuits, New China Life Insurance, AVIC Chengdu Aircraft and Shenzhen Inovance Technology gained 1 to 3.2%.

Bank of Communications, Eoptolink Technology, CMOC Group, Victory Giant Technology, Shandong Gold Mining and China Tourism Group were among the major losers.