Friday, February 03, 2012

Asia stocks mixed to close week

Japanese and South Korean shares lost ground Friday, as investors digested a raft of earnings reports and turned cautious ahead of a key U.S. employment report.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 Index went into the weekend settling 44.89 points, or 0.5%, to 8,831.93

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index progressed another 17.53 points, or 0.1%, to 20,757, after Thursday's 400-point-plus jump.

Shares of Softbank Corp. fell 3.6% in Tokyo after its quarterly profit halved due to new competition in selling the Apple iPhone. Softbank previously enjoyed a monopoly.

Rival KDDI Corp. gave up 1.4%.

Yamaha Corp. slumped 7% after it reported weak earnings.

Sony Corp., which Thursday reported a staggering $2.1-billion U.S. loss for the last quarter, rallied 8.1%, recouping recent losses.

Sharp Corp. added 2.8% after posting weak quarterly results earlier in the week. Shares in Canon Inc. gained 2% after the firm announced a share buyback.

Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd. lost 2.2% after forecasting a fiscal-year loss late Thursday. Fellow steel producer JFE Holdings Inc. gave up 1.9% and Nippon Steel Corp. shed 1.1%.

In Hong Kong, Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. climbed 3.3% after announcing its cellular-telecom-services unit Hutchison 3G Austria will buy Orange Austria for about 1.3 billion euros ($1.71 billion U.S).

Chinese property shares advanced after Dow Jones Newswires reported land sales fell sharply in January as developers stopped purchases to preserve cash. In Hong Kong, Agile Property Holdings Ltd. rose 1.8%, while China Resources Land Ltd. added 0.9%.

In Seoul, shipbuilders declined after disappointing earnings reports from Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and Samsung Heavy Industries Co. Shares in Hyundai Heavy tumbled 7.7% while Samsung Heavy lost 3%.

Gold miners rose in Australia after Comex gold futures hit an 11-week high in New York trading. Newcrest Mining Ltd. and Perseus Mining Ltd. each traded 1% firmer.

Shares of Zijin Mining Group Co. rose 1.6% in Hong Kong and 0.9% in Shanghai after the firm tipped a 20% increase in its fiscal year profit.

CHINA

Chinese stocks managed to finish higher after a lower opening, with the property sector and some other laggards finding buyers ahead of the weekend.

The Shanghai CSI 300 gained 19.85 points, or 0.8%, to 2,506.09

In Shanghai, shares of Gemdale Corp. rose 1.5% and Poly Real Estate Group Co. rising 1.1%.

In other markets;

Taiwan's Taiex Index advanced 22.53 points, or 0.3%, to 7,674.99

Korea's Kospi Index gave back 11.96 points, or 0.6%, to 1,972.34

Singapore's Straits Times Index added 16.91 points, or 0.6%, to 2,917.95

New Zealand's NZX 50 Index docked 2.41 points, or 0.1%, to 3,312.23

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 16.68 points, or 0.4%, to 4,251.17