Asia close: Chinese stocks outperform as officials signal policy support

(Sharecast News) - Asia Pacific stocks stabilised at the end of the week with investors keeping their cards close to their chests ahead of the release of the July U.S. non-farm payrolls numbers and heading into the weekend. Japan's Nikkei-225 edged up 0.1% to 32,192.75 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.62% to 19,540.47.

In the background, dollar/yen was up by 0.08% at 142.69 while against the yuan it rose 0.17% to 7.1818.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond meanwhile was one basis point lower to 0.646%.

Helping Chinese stocks to outperform again, on Friday, officials from multiple departments at China's central bank said at a briefing that they would support economic growth in the back half of 2023, Dow Jones Newswires reported.