Asian stocks slip with eye on economic releases

Asian stocks are mostly falling ahead of more regional economic releases that could hint at how the delta variant is affecting growth

SINGAPORE -- Asian stocks mostly fell Friday ahead of more regional economic releases that could hint at how the delta variant is affecting growth. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 lost 0.1% to close at 27,977.15. South Korea's Kospi dropped 1.2% to 3,168.82 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong fell 0.8% to 26,315.47. The Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.2% to 3,518.87 in afternoon trading. Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 added 0.5% to 7,628.90, however. New Zealand’s benchmark jumped, while those in Singapore and Indonesia fell. Japan and Thailand will report their economic growth for the second quarter next week. While traders won't “pay much attention to this backdated GDP data,” they will watch how the delta variant is hitting the wider growth trajectory, ING analysts said in a report.