Asian stocks extend listless week

Chinese inflation figures keep the overall sentiments subdued

Asian stocks were mostly mixed today, extending a listless sort of week as traders continue to ask questions on monetary policy in China and Greece Sovereign scenario. China's consumer price index rose a faster-than-expected 2.7% in February from the year earlier period, intensifying from January's 1.5% rise. The rise in CPI and a sharp 20.7% jump in January-February industrial output triggered worry about further credit tightening in the world's fastest growing economy.

Chinese markets pared their initial advances after these data pointers and the Shanghai Composite closed up 0.1%, while the Shenzhen Composite index slid 0.1%. The stock market in Japan ended in positive territory on Thursday, lifted by weaker yen and optimism that the Bank of Japan, in its meeting next week, will announce additional measures to ease monetary policy and fight deflation. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index gained 0.96% while the broader Topix index was up 0.86%.

In Japan, the final report on Q4 GDP released by the Cabinet Office revealed that the country's gross domestic product rose 0.9% in the fourth quarter, slightly less than the 1% growth expected by economists and 1.1% growth reported in the preliminary report released last month. The report further noted that annualized GDP came in at 3.8%, missing economists' mean expectation of 4% growth and also sharply lower than the annualized 4.6% growth reported in the preliminary report.

The Indian stocks ended slightly higher on Thursday after an early setback as late buying following a gain in the U.S index futures helped. IT stocks outperformed on improving business outlook. Bellwether Infosys rose 0.92%, rival TCS advanced 1.31% and Wipro gained 1.73%. After trading in a lackluster manner for most of the day, the 30-share Sensex added over 100 points in late trading before paring some gains and finishing at 17,168, up 70 points or 0.41%, while the 50-share Nifty ended up 17 points or 0.34% at 5,133.

In other markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index inched up 0.1%, Taiwan's Taiex lost 0.4%, South Korea's Kospi shed 0.3% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.1%.

In the U.S., stocks moved higher on Wednesday. The major averages all closed in positive territory, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq posting a sizable gain. The Dow gained 2.95 points or less than a tenth of a percent to close at 10,567, while the Nasdaq advanced by 18.27 points or 0.8% to 2,349 and the S&P 500 rose by 5.17 points or 0.5% to 1,146.

However, the US index futures have not been able to hold in green for a longer period today and currently languish in red. The DOW Jones is expected to open lower by 6 points as per the latest futures data. Light sweet crude oil futures for April delivery trade at $82.28 a barrel in electronic trading, up 19 cents per barrel from previous close.