British News Agency

The CSI 300 real estate index — which had gained 5 percent on Wednesday — fell 5.5 percent, while the benchmark CSI 300 was marginally higher. Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.6 percent, while the broad-based Topix changed little as investors assessed trade data from Japan.

Japan’s exports fell 1.7 percent in September, the first time exports contracted this year and were down sharply from a revised growth rate of 5.5 percent in August. September’s import growth was 2.1 percent, down from August’s growth of 2.3 percent. This was also below economists' expectations of 3.2 percent.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.4 percent in trading. Australia’s unemployment rate for September was at 4.1 percent, slightly down from a Reuters poll that expected it to remain unchanged from August at 4.2 percent. Australia’s labour participation rate slightly increased to 67.2 percent in September, up 0.1 percentage points from August and forecasts.

South Korea’s Kospi was trading up 0.1 percent, while the small-cap Kosdaq was flat. The Hong Kong Hang Seng index rose 1.1 percent following a number of policy announcements from its chief executive on Wednesday.

Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones gained 337.28 points, or 0.79 percent, to end at 43,077.70. The S&P 500 added 0.47 percent to 5,842.47, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.28 percent to close at 18,367.08.