Asian stocks open mostly up as the week wraps up

Asian stocks opened with a mixed performance but mostly higher on Friday, as the Japanese, the Chinese stocks and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index in addition to the South Korean Kospi index rose, while the Australian, New Zealand stocks fell after the release of several economic data updates and developments by major Asian economies.

The Chinese National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed today that the GDP growth slowed to 1.5% in the third quarter as expected vs.1.6% in the second quarter, while growth slowed to 6.0% from a year earlier vs. 6.2% in the previous annual reading for the second quarter and lower than forecasts of 6.1%.

While the retail sales reading showed that growth accelerated as expected to 7.8% on annual basis vs. 7.5% in the previous reading, the annual reading of industrial production showed growth to 6.3% vs. 4.4%, surpassing forecasts of 5%, and the unemployment steadied at 5.2% in September.

Otherwise, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the trade agreement with China is ready and they're currently preparing the trade deal text, and noted that it will not be signed until he meets his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping next month in Chile, added that China has began purchasing US agricultural products.

The US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also stated that US and Chinese trade negotiators are preparing the text for the first phase of the trade deal to be signed by their presidents next month at Chile, and added that there are no plans for another high-level meeting.

Meanwhile the European Union summit in Brussels is entering its second day, after agreeing with the UK on a draft Brexit deal yesterday, and will be put before the British parliament for a vote on Saturday, the markets are also anticipating the launch of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) meetings with officials from the World Bank in Washington.

The Japanese stocks saw a surge today, as Topix rose by 0.21% or 3.39 points to 1,627.55 points, and Nikkei 225 jumped 0.57% or 127.61 points to 22,579.47.

The Chinese stocks also rose during sessions, as the CSI 300 index gained 0.15% or 5.92 points to 3,931.14, and the Shanghai Composite index rose by 0.15% or 4.39 points to 2,981.73.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose by 0.31% or 82.20 points to 26,930.69, and the South Korean Kospi rose by 0.1% or 3.44 points to 2,081.38.

To New Zealand's NZX 50, which fell by 0.38% or 42.49 points to 11,099.37, and the Australian S&P/ASX 200 fell by 0.58% or 38.88 points to 6,645.80.