Investing.com - Asian shares were narrowly mixed on Thursday with sentiment downbeat over the likely hard slog ahead for the U.K. to exit the European Union.
Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.35%, though Toshiba shares rose 3.37% ahead of an extraordinary shareholders meeting. The Japanese conglomerate's U.S. subsidiary Westinghouse Electric filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday, after it posted a multi-billion dollar write-off due to cost overruns at four nuclear reactors under construction in the U.S.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.2% percent as the country began began evacuating thousands of people from resort islands in the tropical northeast on Thursday, as water supplies began to run low, Reuters reported. On the mainland of Queensland, tens of thousands of people were still without power, as officials warned of more heavy rainfall in the wake of Cyclone Debbie.
In South Korea, the Kospi index slipped 0.3%, while Samsung (KS:005930) Electroncis released its Galaxy S8 smartphone and gained 0.53%.
The Shanghai composite dropped 1.12%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 0.47%.
Overnight, U.S. stocks were mixed after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Consumer Services and Technology sectors led shares higher while losses in the Utilities, Financials and Telecoms sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.20%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.11%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.38%.