Markets in Asia finished mostly lower on Friday, despite an agreement from major oil producers at a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to extend output cuts for an additional nine months.
The Nikkei 225 retreated 126.29 points, or 0.6%, to 19,686.84
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index eked up 8.49 points to 25,639.27
Toshiba announced KKR, SK Hynix, Broadcom and Hon Hai Precision had submitted bids for its memory chip unit. The company suggested it had received offers that were higher than two trillion yen ($17.9 billion U.S.), according to media reports. Toshiba shares closed down 0.4%
Citi analyst Nobuyoshi Miura upgraded his call on shares of beverage manufacturer Yakult Honsha to a buy rating, citing better volumes in China and Japan in 2016 and expectations for sales growth going forward. Shares of Yakult rose 1.3%.
The U.S. dollar softened against the yen to trade at 111.31. The greenback had been on the defensive following the release of minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's May meeting. The Australian dollar traded lower against its U.S. counterpart after breaching the $0.75 handle yesterday. The Aussie traded at $0.7439 late Friday afternoon.
In economic news, Japan CPI for the month of April improved 0.4% on year, in line with analyst forecasts.
Hong Kong-listed Lenovo Group slumped 3.2% in late-afternoon trade. The world's largest maker of personal computers reported it was back in the green for the year to March, but cautioned about problems in the short-term.
The production cuts of 1.8 million barrels a day, first agreed on in November last year, will now extend to March 2018, the group decided at a meeting in Vienna on Thursday. The OPEC-led output cuts are targeted at re-balancing the global overhang in the oil markets, which saw oil prices fall by more than half in recent years.
Oil prices fell almost 5% in the last session following the news as some investors had been hoping for deeper production cuts. U.S. crude had traded above the $50.00 mark for most of the week in anticipation of the OPEC meeting.
Australian markets were down, driven by losses in the energy and materials sectors, which slid 1.7% and 1.3%, respectively.
In other markets
Shanghai’s CSI 300 faded 5.23 points, or 0.2%, to 3,480.43
In Taiwan, the Taiex Index dropped 6.54 points, or 0.1%, to 10,101.95
In Korea, the Kospi index progressed 12.37 points, or 0.5%, to 2,355.30
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index lost 14.95 points, or 0.5%, to 3,219.42
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 added 7.1 points, or 0.1%, to 7,441.57
In Australia, the ASX 200 let go of 37.96 points, or 0.7%, to 5,751.66
