HONG KONG, June 22: Asian stocks shrugged off a solid overnight performance by Wall Street and closed lower on Friday with investors again consolidating on the back of recent gains.
A slew of US economic data and a meeting of the federal reserve, all due for next week, also held investors in the wings and limited trade. This left most market players to focus on domestic issues.
Tokyo ended six days of gains, which pushed the benchmark to a seven-year high, and shed 0.28 per cent. Seoul fell 1.3 per cent amid government warnings the market was overheating after striking record highs.
Shanghai was the worst on the day with a 3.29 per cent tumble as fears the government will again move to cool its markets resurfaced.
Wellington and Manila were both off 0.36 per cent, Singapore fell 0.66 per cent, Bangkok shed 0.53 per cent and Mumbai eased 0.22 per cent while Sydney, Jakarta and Taipei were flat.
However, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur bucked the trend and rose a modest 0.21 and 0.26 per cent respectively. Both ended the day in record territory.
TOKYO: Share prices lost 0.28 per cent, snapping a six-day winning streak as market players took profits after the benchmark index hit a seven-year high.
Dealers said the market continued to be encouraged by the weak yen, which boosts exporters, but had little incentive to push share prices further in the absence of major new factors.
The Nikkei-225 index fell 51.67 points to 18,188.63. Volume traded slipped to 1.95 billion shares from 2.23 billion shares Thursday.
The Bank of Japan last week maintained its super-low 0.5 per cent benchmark interest rate and gave no signal it was in a rush to lift it.
The market continued to be underpinned up by the softer yen trend, which is supporting expectations of higher earnings for exporters like high-tech companies. That augurs well for a solid economic recovery in Japan, said SBI Securities strategist Hideyuki Suzuki.
Mitsui Fudosan declined 110 yen to 3,530.
HONG KONG: Share prices closed up 0.21 per cent with the key index ending just a tad below 22,000 points after breaking that historic level during the day.
Dealers said the market see-sawed as investors locked in profits with falls on the mainland bourses also acting as a dampener before the benchmark closed firmer, at a record high, for a sixth straight session.
Continued buying interest in China insurers and China Mobile helped offset losses in China financials and select blue chips.
The Hang Seng Index closed up 45.24 points at 21,999.91. Turnover was heavy at 95.81 billion Hong Kong dollars (12.3 billion US).
SYDNEY: Share prices closed little changed, slipping back on selective profit-taking as investors opted not to follow Wall Street's firmer lead overnight.
Dealers said that at current near record levels, some profit-taking is to be expected, especially ahead of the weekend, but also noted that support for global miner BHP helped limit the downside.
The key S&P/ASX 200 closed off 4.4 points at 6,382.6. Turnover was 2.33 billion shares worth 6.82 billion dollars (5.78 billion US).
Dealers said many investors would have expected more from the market after US shares provided a mildly positive lead.
There's been no clear direction on many of the sectors and in fact, in some of the sectors you probably have a split in so far as the direction of the major constituents, CMC Markets chief analyst David Land said.
Land said selling in the financial sector hurt sentiment.
SINGAPORE: Share prices closed 0.66 per cent lower with profit-taking in blue chips and investors locking in gains following the recent record-breaking run.
The Straits Times Index fell 24.11 points to 3,615.38 on volume of 4.47 billion shares worth 2.73 billion Singapore dollars dollars (1.78 billion US).
The market is lower on some profit-taking and it's the usual Friday pullback, nothing big, said a local brokerage dealer.
Blue chips dragged down the index, although gains in some property stocks helped provide support.
Singapore Exchange, which has been leading the market's recent rally, succumbed to profit-taking, shedding 0.20 to 10.10.
KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices closed 0.26 per cent higher in volatile trade, with late buying of big-caps boosting the key index to its fourth successive all-time high.
The composite index was up 3.61 points at 1,391.57 on volume of 1.65 billion shares, valued at 2.72 billion ringgit (788.4 million dollars).
Amid intermittent profit-taking, late gains by big caps Tanjong, which rose 0.30 ringgit to 19.20, and Petronas Dagangan, which closed up 0.25 ringgit at 8.25, helped to lift the market.
JAKARTA: Share prices closed flat with the main index clawing back lost early ground on the back of late buying in large caps, including Astra International.
Dealers said support for a number of laggards like cement maker Holcim Indonesia and retailer Ramayana, along with newly-listed Media Nusantara Citra, also helped shore up the benchmark index.
The composite index closed down 0.019 points at 2,152.321. Volume was 5.77 billion shares worth 4.93 trillion rupiah (547.47 million dollars).
Astra International gained 350 rupiah to 16,900.
WELLINGTON: Share prices fell 0.36 per cent, in line with the weaker Australian market.
The NZX-50 gross index fell 15.43 points to 4,285.14 on turnover worth 125.5 million dollars (95.9 million US).
Grant Williamson, a partner at Hamilton, Hindin Greene, said trading was mixed.
There's just not much coming off the newswires at all so investors are once again concentrating on the domestic economy with the high interest rates and the high currency, he said.
Auckland International Airport dropped four cents to 3.21 dollars.
MUMBAI: Share prices fell 0.22 per cent in choppy trade, snapping three days of gains as investors locked-in profits as the markets edged towards record levels. The 30-share Sensex index fell 31.88 points to 14,467.36.
After a short rally, the markets corrected marginally with strong bouts of buying and selling, said Hiten Mehta, a fund manager with Fortune Financial Services. Banking stocks continued to gain Friday on demand in the mega-ICICI initial share sale offering, which closes Friday.
—AFP