05:37 AM EST, 01/03/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Asian stock markets turned in a choppy Friday as investors again weighed the outlook for the regional economic behemoth, China, and mulled sinking bond yields on the nation's sovereign bonds.

Hong Kong gained, Shanghai lost ground, and Tokyo was closed on holiday. Other regional exchanges were also mixed.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index opened evenly, see-sawed and finished up 0.7% after the People's Bank of China, the nation's central bank, reported it had delivered $7.53 billion worth of liquid assets to financial houses for the purpose of buying equities.

The broad gauge Hang Seng rose 136.95 to 19,760.27 as gaining issues outnumbered losers 46 to 34. The Hang Seng TECH Index gained 1% on the day, while the Mainland Properties Index fell 0.1%.

Leading the upside was phone-maker Xiaomi, gaining 6.6%, while auto-dealer Zhongsheng declined 3.8%.

On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite fell 1.6% to 3,211.43.

In economic news, yields on 10-year China sovereign bonds set a fresh all-time low, falling below 1.6% on Friday. Some market observers said the low yields reflect China banks holding more deposits than they can lend, thus pushing down yields on China bonds.

In other news, 20 China-based securities firms, fund managers and insurance companies received $7.53 billion worth of liquid assets on Thursday from the People's Bank, in a swap facility that can be used as collateral for the purchase of equities, the central bank said in a statement, according to a report in the South China Morning Post.

On the other regional exchanges, the S. Korean KOSPI rose 1.8%; the Taiwan TWSE inclined 0.3%; the Australian ASX 200 inclined 0.6%; the Singapore Straits Times Index was steady, and the Thai Set inclined 0.4%. In late trading in Mumbai, the Sensex was down 1%.