Asian stock markets closed mixed on Friday in quiet holiday trading, with several markets remaining shut for the Good Friday holiday. Worries about a possible U.S. rate hike in April continued to weigh on investor sentiment. The Japanese and Chinese markets closed higher, while South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan closed lower. Overnight, on Wall Street, stocks closed mixed on Thursday, while the major European markets closed lower. The Japanese market closed higher on Friday for the first time in three days , with a weaker yen boosting exporters' shares. Buying by investors who wanted to secure dividends and other shareholders benefits before companies close their books at the end of the fiscal year in late March also aided shares. Data released earlier in the day showed that the consumer inflation trend in Japan fell short of the Bank of Japan's 2 percent inflation target. This is likely to keep the central bank under pressure to boost inflation. Among the major exporters, Sony added more than 1 percent, Toshiba rose more than 4 percent and Canon is adding more than 2 percent on the back of a weaker yen. Trading house Mitsui & Co. and peer Mitsubishi Corp. both rose more than 3 percent. Automakers Toyota and Honda gained almost 3 percent each. In the banking space, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial rose more than 1 percent. In the oil space, Inpex gained more than 1 percent and refiner JX Holdings rose 0.8 percent. Among the other major gainers, MS&AD Insurance rose almost 5 percent, while T&D Holdings, Okuma Corp. and Kubota Corp. advanced more than 4 percent each. On the flip side, Sumitomo Osaka Cement fell more than 5 percent and Haseko Corp. lost more than 4 percent. In economic news, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said that overall nationwide consumer prices in Japan gained 0.3 percent on year in February. That was in line with forecasts following the flat reading in January. Core inflation, which excludes the volatile costs of food, came in flat - again matching forecasts and unchanged from the previous month. Overall CPI in the Tokyo region, considered a leading indicator for the nationwide trend, dipped 0.1 percent on year in March - missing forecasts for an increase of 0.1 percent, which would have been unchanged. Tokyo's core inflation slid 0.3 percent on year versus expectations for -0.2 percent and down from -0.1 percent in February. The Bank of Japan said that producer prices in Japan were up 0.2 percent on year in February. That was in line with expectations following the upwardly revised 0.3 percent gain in January. In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the 113 yen-level in late-day trades, up from Thursday's close in the upper 112 yen-range in Tokyo. Elsewhere in Asia, Shanghai closed 0.6 percent higher, while South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan ended the day with modest losses. Several regional markets were closed in observance of Good Friday, including Australia, New Zealand, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines.
