Asian markets fall as BOJ holds rates; Factory activity in China expanded for the first time since April

Asia-Pacific markets slipped on Thursday as investors looked ahead to the Bank of Japan's rate decision as well as key data on business activity in China.

The BOJ kept its benchmark policy rate at 0.25%, unchanged from the previous meeting. The bank released a two-line statement simply announcing the decision, without any clues as to when its next rate hike would be.

In China, the country's manufacturing purchasing managers' index reversed into expansion territory for the first time since April, with the National Bureau of Statistics revealing that the manufacturing PMI came in at 50.1.

That beat forecasts from a Reuters poll of economists, who had expected the manufacturing PMI to come in at 49.9, a mild contraction from the previous month's 49.8.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 The BOJ was down 0.41% after the decision, while broader topics slipped 0.47%.

South Korea Kospi It was down 0.71%, leading losses in Asia, but the small-cap Kosdaq rose 0.39%.

Investors are weighing the third-quarter earnings of heavyweight Samsung Electronics, which posted lower profits than the previous quarter. Most notably, Samsung's semiconductor unit reported a third-quarter operating profit of 3.86 trillion won (about $2.8 billion), down 40% from the previous quarter.

Australia S&P/ASX 200 0.3% reduction.

In contrast, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.66%, while mainland China's CSI 300 was up 0.54%.

Overnight in the US, stocks fell as investors digested a flurry of earnings reports and looked ahead to more results from megacap technology companies.

Alphabet beat analysts' expectations as the company reported strong quarterly revenue growth from its cloud business. Shares jumped nearly 3%. However, shares of chipmaker AMD fell more than 10% after its fourth-quarter revenue guidance failed to impress investors.

Tech titans Apple and Amazon followed Thursday's results from Meta Platform and Microsoft.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.56% after earlier hitting a new record high. The S&P 500 slipped 0.33%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.22% to close at 42,141.54.

— CNBC's Hakyung Kim and Pia Singh contributed to this report.