Rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) affirmed China's sovereign debt rating at 'AA-' but downgraded the outlook to 'negative' from 'stable'. The agency said that the downward revision was driven by a slower-than-expected pace of the implementation of reforms.

"Economic and financial risks to the Chinese government's creditworthiness are gradually increasing," the agency noted.

S&P affirmed Hong Kong's rating at 'AAA'. The agency also downgraded the outlook to 'negative' from 'stable'.

The U.S. Labor Department released its jobless claims figures on Thursday. The number of initial jobless claims in the week ending March 26 in the U.S. increased by 11,000 to 276,000 from 265,000 in the previous week. Analysts had expected jobless claims to remain unchanged at 265,000.

Jobless claims remained below 300,000 the 56th straight week. This threshold is associated with the strengthening of the labour market.

Continuing jobless claims decreased by 7,000 to 2,173,000 in the week ended March 19.

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