South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.56 percent after being pressured by geopolitical tensions for most of the last week.
The Nikkei 225 was down more than 1 percent despite second-quarter Japan GDP surprising to the upside as investors in Asia geared up for the release of a barrage of China data on Monday.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 1.05 percent in early trade as markets re-opened after a public holiday last week. Markets appeared to shrug off headlines that the Japanese economy grew at an annualized rate of 4 percent in the second quarter of the year ending in June compared to the previous year. That easily topped the 2.5 percent rise forecast in a Reuters poll.
The yen softened slightly against the dollar following the GDP beat, with the greenback fetching 109.25 yen at 8: 13 a.m. compared to levels around 109.14 yen before the data release.
South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.56 percent after being pressured by geopolitical tensions for most of the last week.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.32 percent, with the broader index driven by gains in the information technology, industrials and consumer discretionary sub-indexes.
Thailand markets were closed for a public holiday.
Over in the US, July consumer prices were weaker than expected, rising just 0.1 percent compared to the month before, Reuters reported on Friday. That was below the 0.2 percent forecast in a Reuters poll. The CPI rose 1.7 percent compared to the previous year, which was a tad below the 1.
