Asia markets opened mixed on Thursday, ahead of another earnings-heavy day and the start of the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) two-day policy meeting.

Australia's ASX 200 was up 0.27 percent, with the materials sub-index advancing 1.12 percent in early trade. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 dropped 0.7 percent, while the Topix fell 0.87 percent. Across the Korean Strait, the Kospi was up 0.15 percent.

The BOJ is set to begin its two-day monetary policy meeting on Thursday.

Influential Japanese business daily Nikkei had previously reported that BOJ officials were looking at multiple stimulus proposals ahead of the central bank's policy meeting.

The Nikkei reported the main options were to cut interest rates beyond the current level of negative 0.1 percent, buy more Japanese government bonds on top of the current 80 trillion yen annually, or expand purchases of other assets such as exchange-traded funds.

On Wednesday, Japanese media agency Jiji reported that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was preparing a stimulus package worth 28 trillion yen(USD 265.30 billion), which exceeds initial estimates of around 20 trillion yen-worth of potential stimulus.

Jennifer Vail, head of fixed income research at US Bank Wealth Management, said in a note to clients that the bank expected combined fiscal and monetary stimulus in Japan.

"If the BOJ decides to act this week, they could expand the quantitative and qualitative easing (QQE) program or decide to reinvest maturities. If nothing happens this week, we expect the BOJ will act definitively in September," Vail said.

In company news, shares of Samsung Electronics fell 0.46 percent in early trade, after the smartphone maker announced its second quarter earnings before market open.

Samsung reported revenue of 50.94 trillion won for the quarter ended June 30, a 2.4 trillion won increase on-year, while operating profit for the same period was at 8.14 trillion won, a 1.24 trillion won uptick on-year.

The company said both its handset and component businesses performed strongly to lead earnings growth, with its IT and mobile communications division seeing an improvement led by higher sales of the flagship Galaxy S7 and S7 edge smartphones.

Nintendo shares, meanwhile, were down 1.08 percent, as traders reacted to its first quarter operating losses of USD 47.33 million that the Japanese gaming company announced on Wednesday after market close.

In the currency market, the dollar retreated against a basket of major currencies, with the dollar index trading at 96.56, compared to its last close at 97.053.

Stateside, the Federal Reserve opted to not raise interest rates in a move on Wednesday that was widely expected by markets. The Federal Open Market Committee kept its overnight interest rate target in the 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent range.

However, it noted that the labor market has "strengthened" and said other indicators were pointing to growth.

"While a number of investment banks have increased their internal probability models for a September hike, the interest rate markets have gone the other way and priced out the prospect," said Chris Weston, chief market strategist at brokerage firm IG. Weston explained the "reverberations of this re-pricing" was seen in the weaker dollar.

In Japan, the yen strengthened to the 104 handle against the greenback, with the pair trading at 104.84, compared to levels near 107 in the previous week, as traders await the BOJ's decision due Friday.

Major US indexes closed mixed on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average near flat at 18,472.17. The S&P 500 index closed 2.6 points lower, or 0.12 percent, at 2,166.58, while the Nasdaq composite was up 29.76 points, or 0.58 percent, at 5,139.81.

On the earnings front, numbers are due from Nomura, Fujitsu, Singapore Airlines, and LG Electronics.

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First Published:Jul 28, 2016 7:47 AM IST