A security man removes his protective mask by the entrance of the Shanghai Stock Exchange Building.
Yves Dean | Getty Images
SINGAPORE — Stocks in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Thursday trade, as investors watched movements in mainland Chinese stocks as they returned from the Lunar New Year holiday.
The Shanghai composite jumped about 1.6% in early trade while the Shenzhen component gained 0.756%.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan was above the flatline while the Topix index declined 0.39%. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.39%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 traded fractionally higher.
Australia’s unemployment rate decreased to 6.4% in January, according to seasonally adjusted estimates released Thursday by the country’s Bureau of Statistics. That compared against December’s unemployment rate of 6.6%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little changed.
Oil prices jump
Oil prices jumped in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up 1.48% to $65.29 per barrel. U.S. crude futures gained 1.32% to $61.95 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 90.873 following a recent rise from levels below 90.3.
The Japanese yen traded at 105.75 per dollar, weaker than levels below 105.6 against the greenback seen earlier this week. The Australian dollar was at $0.7757 after seeing levels around $0.78 earlier in the trading week.
