Asian shares had a mixed day on Thursday, with Chinese stocks catching up with the global rally after a week-long break and the Nikkei dipping on weak economic data.

Shanghai stocks rose 3.6 percent at open and stayed up 3.2 percent in afternoon trade.

However, the release of a key Japanese indicator negatively affected the Nikkei; Core machinery orders fell by 5.7 percent in August, a far cry from the 3.2 percent increase expected by analysts. The index closed down 0.99% at 18,141.17 points.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.8 percent – down from its highest close since August 20th on Wednesday – and South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.2 percent.