Asian Markets Trade Mixed

(RTTNews) - Asian stock markets are trading mixed on Thursday, following the lack of cues from global markets overnight as they were closed for Christmas holiday and the thin trading with some markets in the region closed in the holiday-shortened week. Traders react to China's central bank holding the interest rate on the one-year medium-term lending facility at 2% on Wednesday. Asian Markets closed mostly higher on Tuesday.

The Australian stock market is closed on Thursday for Boxing Day holiday. Australian stocks closed modestly higher on Tuesday prior to the holiday on Wednesday.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.625 on Thursday.

Adding to the gains in the previous session, the Japanese market is notably higher on Thursday, following the lack of cues from global markets overnight as they were closed for Christmas holiday. The Nikkei 225 is moving well above the 39,300 level, with gains across most sectors led by index heavyweights and automaker stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 39,336.39, up 205.96 points or 0.53 percent, after touching a high of 39,360.80 earlier. Japanese shares ended modestly higher on Wednesday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is gaining more than 1 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.1 percent. Among automakers, Toyota is gaining almost 4 percent and Honda is adding almost 3 percent.

In the tech space, Screen Holdings is edging down 0.1 percent, while Tokyo Electron is edging up 0.2 percent. Advantest is flat.

In the banking sector, Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are edging up 0.1 percent each, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is flat.

Among the major exporters, Canon is edging down 0.2 percent, while Panasonic, Mitsubishi Electric and Sony are edging up 0.3 to 0.4 percent each.

Among other major gainers, Mitsubishi Motors is gaining almost 4 percent, while Nissan Motor, Mazda Motor and Denso are adding almost 3 percent each.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 157 yen-range on Thursday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Malaysia and Taiwan are up 0.8 percent each, while China, Singapore and South Korea are lower by between 0.1 and 0.2 percent each. New Zealand, Hong Kong and Indonesia are closed. On Wall Street, the markets were closed for Christmas holiday on Wednesday after closing mostly higher on Tuesday.

The major European markets also were closed for Christmas holiday on Wednesday after closing mostly higher on Tuesday.