Shanghai Composite Index, Nikkei 225 Close Higher

(RTTNews) - The stock markets in China and Japan closed on a positive note on Thursday, while the rest of the markets in the Asia-Pacific region remained shut for Christmas.

Amid a lack of economic data and significant corporate news, and with traders mostly staying on the sidelines, trading volumes remained thin once again.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index closed up by 39.81 points or 0.08% at 50,383.91.

Among the major gainers, Sumco surged 4.5%. Rakuten, Keisei Electric Railway, Mercari Inc., CyberAgent and Shionogi moved up 3 to 4%.

Pacific Metals, Ajinomoto, Daiichi Sankyo, Nippon Paper, Panasonic, Fanuc, Toto, Seiko Epson, Trend Micro, Sekisui House, J Front Retailing, Comsys and TDK also posted strong gains.

Toho Zinc tumbled by more than 10%. Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding, Fujikura, Sumitomo Metal Mining and Kawasaki lost 2.2 to 2.6%.

Nissan, Advantest, Nissui, Lasertec Corp, Toray Industries and T&D Holdings also closed notably lower.

The Shanghai Composite Index settled with a gain of 18.67 points or 0.47% at 3,959.62.

Shares of insurance companies had a good outing. Ping An Insurance, China Life Insurance, People's Insurance Company, China Pacific Insurance and New China Life Assurance closed with sharp to moderate gains.

AVIC Shenyang Aircraft, Zhejiang Sanhua Intelligent Controls, Hithink RoyalFlus Information, Inner Mongolia Yili Industries, AVIC Chengdu Aircraft, Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics and China CSSC Holdings were among the other prominent gainers.

China Petroleum & Chemicals, Bank of Communications, Eoptolink Technology, Naura Technology Group, BeOne Medicines, Victory Giant Technology and Cosco Shipping Holdings ended notably lower.