Asian equities creep up during shaky trading

The majority of Asian stocks recovered some of their early losses on Thursday, but overall gains were still constrained by market volatility caused by ongoing worries about the economy's slowing growth and rising interest rates.

A lackluster Wall Street overnight session sent regional markets into a tailspin as a bounce from multi-month lows broke. In Asian trade, U.S. stock index futures also declined.

Wall Street was hammered in recent sessions by heightened fears of a U.S. recession as well as a run of mediocre earnings from heavyweight technology giants.

Concerns over a downturn in China's economy also increased following the nation's disappointing trade figures on Wednesday.

After a two-day sell-off of over 10% in Japanese markets, several Bank of Japan officials attempted to play down the bank's hawkish interest rate forecast.

The Bank of Japan officials still saw room for future rate hikes, according to a summary of their views that was made public on Thursday. They also believed that interest rates would need to rise to about 1% in order to reach a level that was neutral for the economy.

The recent collapse in Japanese markets, which saw the Nikkei and the TOPIX reach bear market territory on Monday, was mostly caused by the BOJ's surprisingly aggressive tone.

Other Asian technology equities also declined as a result of shoddy signals from their American counterparts, particularly in the semiconductor industry. U.S. semiconductor equities experienced severe declines for two days after Super Micro Computer reported disappointing results.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.7%, while China's Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 and Shanghai Composite indices increased 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively, from their more than five-month lows.

Trade data on Wednesday showed that China's trade surplus shrunk significantly more than anticipated in July, continuing to depict a bleak image of the economy. Following the imposition of heavy tariffs by the European Union on Chinese electric vehicles, exports unexpectedly decreased, and China's imports of copper and gasoline also experienced a severe decline. 

The economic calendar is again quiet for the day, with the main event being the US Jobless Claims due after lunch time.

(Sources: investing.com, reuters.com)