Most Asian markets were mixed as investors parsed Japan’s latest gross domestic product (GDP) figures and awaited a slate of other economic data from the region. Japan’s Nikkei ended unchanged after its economy shrank for the first time in a year, contracting 0.2 percent in the March quarter as exports declined sharply, according to the preliminary government data. On an annual basis, GDP contracted 0.7 percent in the first quarter. South Korea’s Kospi Index added 0.2 percent, and Singapore’s Strait Times Index rose 0.15 percent. Conversely, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declined over 0.4 percent, and China’s Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.4 percent.

Major European indices were trading up in the intraday trade. Germany’s DAX was trading 0.6 percent up, France’s CAC 40 added almost 0.6 percent, and London’s FTSE rose over 0.4 percent when reports last came in.

Earlier, the Office for National Statistics data showed that UK’s economy witnessed strongest quarterly growth in a year with its GDP rising 0.7 percent in the first quarter, sharply up from 0.1 percent growth in the last three months of 2024.