Most Asian markets ended lower Wednesday after a roller-coaster ride, with Shanghai-listed stocks declining on worries about monetary tightening and Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China's mega-share issue.
The Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.2 percent to 12,972.1 points while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.02 percent to 23,114.3.
Japanese investors reacted little to data showing Japan's corporate spending is weakening. Capital spending declined 7.7 percent in the October-December quarter from a year earlier, marking the biggest fall since July-September 2002, the Ministry of Finance said.
But some analysts said the data may affect the market later.
Bank shares were lower following Bernanke's overnight remarks that banks and lenders should write down some of the principal on their bad mortgage loans. Mizuho Financial Group fell 3.1 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group dropped 2.3 percent.
Trading houses were higher, with Marubeni climbing 8.5 percent after saying it had discovered a natural gas find in the North Sea off the U.K.
China's Shanghai Composite finished 1% lower at 4,292.65, on top of its 2.3% drop Tuesday.
The decline came after Chinese premier Wen Jiabao said at the inaugural session of the National People's Congress Wednesday that controlling inflation and preventing overheating were priorities for the government, raising fears of continued monetary policy tightening.
Elsewhere:
New Zealand's NZX 50 index added 1% to 3,619.47.
South Korea's Kospi inched up 0.1% to 1,677.10.
Singapore's Straits Times index fell 0.3% to 2,910.18.
India's Sensitive Index, or Sensex, climbed 0.7% to 16,452.54.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.1% to 5,376.60. The index went as high as 5,461.30 during the session on bargain buying in financials such as Commonwealth Bank of Australia and National Australia Bank, but reversed direction in afternoon trading as those stocks came under selling pressure.
with files from other services
