The Turkish lira hit a fresh record low on Thursday following a cabinet reshuffle by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan amid a huge graft scandal.

The lira fell to 2.1035 against the dollar on Thursday, after starting the day at 2.0914.

Ratings agency Standard and Poor's on Thursday raised its outlook for Ukraine to stable from negative, saying a multi-billion dollar bailout deal from Russia should mean Kiev meets its external financing needs over the next year.

The outlook change means that Standard and Poor's is now less likely to further downgrade its 'B- /B' assessment of Ukraine's creditworthiness on its sovereign debt, which remains deep into junk status.

The dollar rose to a five-year high against the yen in Asian trading Thursday on the back of strong Japanese share prices in a thin holiday market.

The greenback rose to 104.85 yen in early trade, its highest since October 2008, before settling at 104.71 yen.

China's Cabinet estimates this year's economic growth edged down to 7.6 percent and warned it faces pressure to decline further, a state news agency said Thursday.

The forecast, reported by the Xinhua News Agency, is below the 2012 rate of 7.7 percent but above the government's 7.5 percent target.

Crude edged higher in Asian trade Thursday on supply concerns following escalating violence in oil-producer South Sudan, but gains were capped as dealers sat on the sidelines awaiting fresh leads after the festive season.

New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate for February delivery, was up 13 cents at $99.35 in afternoon trade while Brent North Sea crude for February gained 17 cents to $112.07.

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday announced the recall of more than 400,000 Toyota cars for alleged problems with unintended acceleration, a statement from the kingdom's ministry of commerce and industry said.

It said the vehicles will be equipped with a break override system to "reduce the risk of sudden unintended acceleration without the ability to stop or control it."

Damascus signed an oil and gas deal with a Russian company Wednesday which will allow for the first-ever exploration off Syria's coast.

The agreement was signed by Syrian Oil Minister Suleiman Abbas, Syria's General Petroleum Company and the Russian Soyuzneftegaz company, according to an Agence France Presse reporter present at the signing.

Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista's debt-laden oil company, currently under bankruptcy protection, has agreed with foreign creditors to renegotiate $5.8 billion in debt into a 90 percent stake in the firm.

Oleo e Gas Participacoes (OGP), formerly known as OGX, informed Brazil's Securities and Exchange Commission of the accord, the G1 news website reported Wednesday.

Leading Japanese automakers saw their best November sales ever last month, in stark contrast to a year ago when shipments plunged amid a deep territorial row between Tokyo and Beijing.

Industry leader Toyota said its sales in China for the month reached 90,000 units, up 40.7 percent from a year ago, driven by popularity of its flagship models, including Camry, Corolla and Rav4.

Chinese smugglers dug a "professional" concrete tunnel into Hong Kong equipped with lights, vents, steel reinforcements and even rails to transport goods, domestic media reported on Wednesday.

The underground path had "one end in a rented garage in Shenzhen and another in a thicket of reeds in Hong Kong, totally concealed", said a report posted on the official website china.com.cn.