Asian markets finished mixed on Friday as gaming shares tumbled in Hong Kong and South Korea's main index ended down before parliament voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye over an influence-peddling scandal.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 Index hiked 230.9 points, or 1.2%, to end the week at 18,996.37
The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong dropped 100.86 points, or 0.4%, to 22,760.98, as gaming shares saw sharp losses following reports of Beijing taking aim at the Macau gaming industry in a bid to halt capital outflows.
The South China Morning Post reported Macau was planning to enforce a withdrawal limit for China UnionPay ATM card holders from 10,000 to 5,000 Macanese patacas ($626.00 U.S.), which was expected to take effect from Saturday. This, the Post reported, followed the discovery that as much as 10 billion patacas in China UnionPay ATM withdrawals were made in one month alone.
Separately, China UnionPay, said in a statement that it had not changed its policy on overseas withdrawal limits for mainland-issued cards, which were set at 10,000 yuan ($1,449 U.S.) a day.
Shares of Wynn Macau tumbled 7.5%, Sands China was lower by 8.1%, Galaxy Entertainment fell 7.3%, SJM Holdings was down 6.7% and Melco International Development sank 9.7%.
Australia's Crown Resorts fell 5.3%.
The vote to impeach Park was announced in the late afternoon in Seoul.
Before the vote, the benchmark Kospi closed down. The Korean won strengthened from an earlier session low of 1,168.31 against the U.S. dollar before the news to around 1,164.26 after.
One commentator noted an impeachment vote could take up to 180 days of review by the Constitutional Court before new elections were called, which suggested continued uncertainty for South Korean politics in the near future.
In other markets
In Shanghai, the CSI 300 regained 23.56 points, or 0.7%, to 3,493.70
In Korea, the Kospi retreated 6.38 points, or 0.3%, at 2,024.69
The Straits Times Index in Singapore eased 2.73 points, or 0.1%, to 2,956.13
In Taiwan, the Taiex Index leaped 16.82 points, or 0.2%, to 9,392.68
The NZX 50 retreated 22.71 points, or 0.3%, at 6,893.30
Australia's ASX 200 improved 16.99 points, or 0.3%, at 5,560.62
