Major Asian indicators show no unified direction in today's trading. Some indices are declining, while other indexes are rising. China's Shanghai Composite and Shenzhen Composite indices lost 0.23% and 0.15% each. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 0.01%. At the same time, Japan's Nikkei 225 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.46% and 0.31% respectively. Korea's KOSPI declined by 0.1%.

The latest data from China was the reason for investors' pessimism. Industrial production in the country declined by 2.9% last month, contrary to analysts' forecasts. Analysts expected the index to increase by 5%. It dropped for the first time in the last two years. This indicates a decline in business activity and consequently weak prospects for economic recovery.

Moreover, retail sales fell by 11.1% last month, which exceeded experts' outlooks of a 6.1% decline. This situation was caused by restrictive measures imposed in some areas of China and the ensuing problems with supply, employment and consequently a decline in the number of goods purchased by households.

The country's unemployment rate rose to 6.1% in April, the highest since March 2020 compared to 5.8% in March. At the same time, the authorities plan to reduce unemployment to 5.5%.

According to experts, this situation in China may last until June.

At the same time, the country's central bank kept interest rates on loans unchanged, ie. 2.1% per annum. Moreover, China's officials decided to support the economy by injecting 10 billion yuan into the seven-days reverse repos programme.

Shares of some companies used for calculation of the Hang Seng Index increased. Haidilao International Holding Ltd. rose by 7.4%, Country Garden Holdings Co. Ltd. was up 6.3% and Longfor Group Holdings Ltd. increased 3.7%. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.and JD.com Inc. stocks also grew in value. They added 2.9% and 0.2% respectively.

Stocks of Japan's Nikkei 225 components increased: NTN Corp. surged by 11.2%, Fujikura rose by 6.3% as well as Mazda Motor Corp. added 15%.

Despite the negative data of SoftBank Group's corporate reports about significant losses from investments, its shares grew by 1.5%.

The value of Fast Retailing shares also increased by 1% due to reduced concerns about the spread of COVID-19 and the introduction of subsequent restrictions.

There are minor changes in the share price on the South Korean stock exchange. Thus, the value of Samsung Electronics Co. shares increased by 0.3% and Hyundai Motor stocks decreased by 1.1%.

Shares of Australian companies also do not show the same trend. Woodside Petroleum and Santos Ltd. stocks rose by 0.4% each, while BHP's market capitalization declined by 1.2% and Rio Tinto's capitalization fell 1.5%.