Asian stock markets were mostly lower Thursday, amid inflation data in China that failed to meet expectations and fears of a possible recession in Europe. Data released Thursday showed China's inflation eased slightly in December to 4.1 percent, from November's 4.2 percent. But analysts had hoped to see more improvement.

Nikkei 225 8,386 -62.29 -0.74%

Hang Seng 19,087 -64.96 -0.34%

S&P/ASX 200 4,181 -6.53 -0.16%

Shanghai Composite 2,275 -1.04 -0.05%

Olympus rose 2.27 per cent to 1,258 yen following an Asahi Shimbun report that it was planning a capital tie-up with firms that could include Panasonic, Sony, Fujifilm and South Korea's Samsung Electronics.

The company said no decision has been made. The report was seen as positive for Olympus's share price as such a tie-up meant the company was more likely to be able to remain listed, said an analyst at a Japanese brokerage.

Panasonic Corp., a maker of home appliances, slid 2.5 percent to 628 yen. A Panasonic official said on Thursday: "We are not considering a capital tie-up at this point." Panasonic's comment has failed to extinguish talk in Japan that it might yet take a stake in Olympus, once the disgraced firm has finally put the accounting scandal behind it. Panasonic President Fumio Ohtsubo, also speaking at the Las Vegas event earlier this week, had said: "The situation is unclear, so we aren't doing anything at this time."