Asian equities mixed on Friday

On Friday, Asian equities were divided, with South Korean markets outperforming due to increases in Samsung, while Chinese shares continued to decline as a result of heavy European tariffs on Chinese goods. 

In advance of the release of significant U.S. nonfarm payrolls data later in the day, the wider markets remained largely rangebound.

Limited trading signals were provided by Thursday's U.S. market holiday, and market caution was also influenced by a cooling feeling over interest rate reductions. In Asian trading, U.S. stock index futures saw minimal movement.

Chinese stocks had the worst day's performance; the Shanghai Composite and Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 indices both lost more than 1%. An earlier June and early July decline was maintained by both indices.

Due to the failure of negotiations between China and the EU to reduce or postpone the planned levies, European Union tariffs on Chinese electric car imports—which for certain businesses may amount to as much as 38%—went into force on Friday. The action increased worries about a potential trade war with the West, particularly when Beijing raised the prospect in reaction to the tariffs.

Concerns over heightened hostilities between China and Taiwan, following rumours that China had captured a Taiwanese fishing vessel sailing close to the Chinese coast, also contributed to Friday's losses. There were other reports on Friday claiming that there were Chinese military planes in the Taiwan Strait.

With a gain of about 1%, South Korea's KOSPI was the top performer in Asia on Friday.

The largest stock in the nation, Samsung, had a 1.5% increase, helping to lift the index. The electronics company reported a 15-fold climb in its second-quarter profit.

The artificial intelligence industry's growing demand for memory chips helped Samsung tremendously by increasing revenues and improving profits. The use of AI was also thought to help its consumer electronics division in some ways.

The Nikkei 225 and TOPIX indices in Japan continued to hover around record highs, with the latter momentarily touching record heights.

Export-oriented equities' recent surge against the lower yen and the expectation of a limited monetary tightening by the Bank of Japan both contributed to the recent strength of the Japanese markets.

The fact that household expenditure statistics for May came in much lower than anticipated on Friday supports the idea that the Japanese economy is still weak and will require more financial assistance. This increased speculation that the BOJ would not be able to tighten policy much more, maintaining the ultra-loose monetary conditions that have benefited Japanese markets for almost a decade.

(Sources: investing.com, reuters.com)