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Chinese shares were on track Friday to end six straight weeks of declines, while stock markets across Asia were mostly higher; but in Singapore, commodities trader Noble Group plummeted on fresh fundraising plans.

The Shanghai Composite Index was headed for a gain of 3.6% for the week, most of that coming in earlier sessions amid expectations that global index provider MSCI might include mainland Chinese stocks into its widely tracked benchmarks. That decision is set for after U.S. markets close on June 14. Speculation was cooling fast, though, and on Friday the benchmark was trading off 0.1%.

In Singapore, an announcement by Noble that it will issue new shares and set up a succession plan for its chairman sent the struggling firm's stock down 10% to 27 Singapore cents (20 U.S. cents).

Noble will issue US$500 million in new shares, subscribed to by its chairman Richard Elman and existing shareholder China Investment Corp., as well as a handful of banks, according to the firm, which has made a series of attempts to shore up its weak financial position.

Noble has been under fire for well more than a year by critics who have accused it of irregular accounting. The company has denied any wrongdoing. That, combined with a persistently weak commodities market, has contributed to a share price decline of more than 75%. Liquidity challenges have prompted credit-rating firms to downgrade Noble's investment rating to "junk."

Still, the broader Singapore equities market remained in the black on Friday, with the Straits Times Index up 0.5%. Elsewhere, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.6%, the Hang Seng Index gained 0.3% and the Nikkei Stock Average was up 0.2%.

Healthcare and telecommunication shares led the market up in Australia, while in Hong Kong, financials and property stocks were up slightly.

Investors were buying ahead of a reading on U.S. jobs during the New York trading day Friday. Economic news out of the U.S. has become more closely scrutinized now that the Federal Reserve's June decision on interest rates is drawing closer.

But the gains were limited. "I will surmise that investors are putting risk on hold ahead of the U.S. nonfarm payrolls," said Bernard Aw, a strategist at brokerage IG.

In addition, investors were reacting to a weaker reading of Chinese services activity in May. The Caixin China services purchasing managers index edged down to 51.2 in May from 51.8 in April. May's fall marks the second consecutive monthly decline, indicating renewed softness in the nation's services sector despite Beijing's efforts to prop up growth.

Overnight, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi sounded a note of cautious optimism on the eurozone's recovery, although he also left the door open to fresh stimulus action if inflation in the eurozone remained below target.

For the week, Australia stocks were headed down 1.7%, breaking seven straight weeks of gains.

The Nikkei was also headed down, to fall around 0.9% this week, after three weeks in the black. Most of its losses came on Thursday as the yen extended gains against the U.S. dollar. Meanwhile, the Hang Seng Index was set to score a third week of gains, with the help of rising oil prices.

Liyan Qi and Jake Maxwell Watts contributed to this article.

Write to Chao Deng at Chao.Deng@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 03, 2016 00:35 ET (04:35 GMT)

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