China's surprise decision not to cut interest rates causes mainland Chinese shares to slide.

• On Friday, the People Bank of China did not lower interest rates, despite expectations for more stimulus due to the Covid-induced slowdown. The bank left medium-term rates unchanged.
• Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, and New Zealand are among the markets that are closed for the Good Friday holiday.
• The economic data for tomorrow includes information on China's property market and South Korea's trade statistics.

Despite analysts' expectations for more stimulus, shares in Asia-Pacific mostly slipped on Friday as China did not lower interest rates.

The focus of investors shifted towards mainland Chinese stocks as many major markets in the region were closed for the Good Friday holiday.

Since the start of the pandemic, China has been grappling with its worst Covid outbreak, which has put pressure on mainland stocks for much of the past week, with Shanghai remaining under lockdown.

On Friday, despite initial uncertainty, China stocks ultimately ended in negative territory by the close.

The Shanghai composite and Shenzhen component both experienced a decline in value, with the Shanghai composite dropping 0.45% and the Shenzhen component declining 0.56%.

AMP's head of investment strategy and chief economist, Shane Oliver, stated that Chinese shares were under pressure due to concerns about covid-related lockdowns.

The 'zero covid' policy of China is still facing challenges in managing the Omicron wave, which has led to lockdowns and is threatening the country's growth, contributing to global supply disruptions, as stated in an early Friday note.

Despite expectations for more stimulus due to the Covid-induced slowdown, the People Bank of China kept medium-term rates unchanged on Friday.

Despite the economic downturn and calls from China's leadership for monetary support, the central bank is hesitant to aggressively ease policy. However, we believe it will have no choice but to do more before long, as stated by Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics.

The markets in Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, India, and New Zealand are closed for the Good Friday holiday.

In March, China's new residential prices remained stagnant for the second consecutive month, according to Reuters. Despite this, home prices in the country rose by 1.5% compared to the previous year, which is the slowest pace since November 2015.

In other markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 closed down 0.29% to 27,093.19, while the Topix declined 0.62% to close at 1,896.31. Tech shares in Japan pared earlier losses, with down 1.21%, and tumbling 2.52%.

South Korea’s also dropped 0.76% to finish at 2,696.06.

Major banks released mixed earnings results, while inflation increased, causing U.S. stocks to fall on Thursday, ending a week of losses.

The S&P 500 dropped 1.21% to 4,392.59, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.14% to 13,351.08. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 113.36 points, or 0.33%, to 34,451.23.

This week, inflation was the main topic of discussion. As inflation reports indicated a sharp increase in prices, U.S. Treasury yields rose higher. On Thursday, the benchmark reached multiyear highs, climbing 13 basis points to reach 2.8%.

According to Franziska Palmas, markets economist at Capital Economics, there is potential for the 10-year Treasury yield to increase over the next year, with a possible peak occurring in the middle of the year.

The current selloff of the 10-year Treasury yield may continue, according to analysis of the past eight major Fed tightening cycles since the 1970s.

After a Bloomberg report stated that the anti-corruption watchdog in China was involved in an investigation into links between Alibaba's Ant Group and state-owned Chinese firms, U.S.-listed Chinese tech stocks fell overnight.

More than 4% of New York-listed companies closed lower, while fell about 3% and plunged nearly 9%.

Currencies

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a group of other currencies, reached 100.543 and strengthened to surpass the 100 mark.

The dollar continued to weaken, trading at $0.7403.