Asian shares held within one-year peaks on Thursday as Chinese trade data topped forecasts and imports recorded their first annual rise since late 2014, a promising sign for global demand that gave the Australia dollar a lift.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS eased 0.1 percent, but that followed four days of gains which took it to the highest since July last year.
Japan's Nikkei share averagelanguished on Thursday, as financial stocks weakened after theBank of Japan deputy governor said the central bank will notrule out deepening negative interest rates. Meanwhile, Nintendo Co was under the spotlight,surging 13 percent with heavy volume after it announced at AppleInc's iPhone launch event of the debut of its populargame franchise Super Mario Bros on the iPhone.
The Nikkei ended 0.3 percent lower at 16,958.77.
China stocks fluctuated in a narrow range on Thursday and finished roughly flat as positive news on the data front was offset by receding hopes for additional monetary policy support.
The CSI300 index of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen was unchanged at 3,339.56, while the Shanghai Composite Index inched up 0.1 percent at 3,095.95 points.
Reference: Reuters
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