Asian stocks shrug off China woes

In Shanghai, the benchmark index was down 0.9% at 4,016.01, after it dipped as much as 4.8% earlier in the day. The index tumbled 6.5% Wednesday, after the government tripled the stamp duty on A and B shares to 0.3%, and hurt shares in several other Asian and European markets. Wednesday's loss for the Shanghai market benchmark, which tracks Class A and Class B shares, was the biggest single-day decline in percentage terms since February.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index jumped 1.3% to 20,561.65 and in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rebounded 1.3% to 17,824.99, drawing comfort from an upbeat close on the Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 closed at new record highs.

"The higher close for the U.S. markets has helped. But I expect shares in China and the H-shares in Hong Kong to remain volatile in the near term," said Conita Hung, the head of equity markets at Delta Asia Financial Group in Hong Kong.

In currency trading, the dollar was trading at 121.51 yen as compared with 121.66 yen late Wednesday in New York. Elsewhere in Asia, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 83.8 points to 6,327.2 and Seoul's Kospi index was trading 1.9% higher.

Morgan Stanley has reached a deal to buy Australia's Investa Property Group for $4.7 billion Australian dollars ($3.9 billion) in cash plus debt, the companies announced in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange on Thursday. Morgan Stanley's offer represents a premium of more than 14% to Investa's closing share price on Wednesday. Investa shares jumped 14.9% on the news.

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