Investing.com - Asian shares were mixed on Thursday with Sydney down 0.23% despite a mildly positive business survey, but Tokyo and Shanghai up after Greece set the stage for its third bailout program.
The S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.23%, while the Nikkei 225 was up 0.39% and the Shanghai Composite gained 1.31%.
Greece approved a second prior actions bill on Thursday that was demanded by creditors before they negotiate a third rescue package in a parliamentary vote of 230 to 63 and with five voting present.
The bill was widely expected to be approved as it was supported by the main opposition parties, but Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras also managed to contain further defections from his own party, Syriza, and stay on in his post.
As well, National Australia Bank said that business confidence rose in the second quarter to the highest since the third quarter of 2014 and was consistent with the long-run average for the series while conditions improved marginally but remained above the long-run average.
Second quarter business confidence came in at plus-4 compared to flat in the first quarter and conditions reached plus-4 from pluss-3.
Earlier, Japan's June trade data showed a deficit of ¥69 billion, below a forecast for a trade surplus of ¥5.0 billion, which would have been the first surplus since ¥222.7 billion in March - the first positive balance in 33 months and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand on Thursday cut its Official Cash Rate by 25 basis points to 3.00% and said further cuts are likely, but noted concern on housing.
"House prices in Auckland continue to increase rapidly, but, outside Auckland, house price inflation generally remains low. Increased building activity is underway in the Auckland region, but it will take some time for the imbalances in the housing market to be corrected," Governor Graeme Wheeler said in a statement.
Overnight, U.S. stocks moved broadly lower on Wednesday extending losses from one session earlier, as losses from Apple Inc (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:AAPL) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:MSFT) weighed on the major indices after the technology giants reported unsatisfactory quarterly earnings Tuesday after the bell.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and NASDAQ Composite index each fell mildly to retreat from near record territory, while the S&P 500 Composite index also posted losses for the second consecutive session on a bearish day for stocks. The Dow lost 68.25 or 0.38% to 17,851.04 amid the disappointing earnings from the prominent companies, while the NASDAQ dropped 36.35 or 0.70% to end the session at 5,171.77.
The S&P 500, meanwhile, fell 5.06 or 0.24% to 2,114.15, as stocks in five of 10 sectors closed in the red.