Mainland Chinese and Indian markets fronted a broad Monday decline in Asia, as concerns about high inflation played on investors' minds in the region's two fastest-growing economies.
The Shanghai Composite jumped 3% Friday on energy companies after Beijing allowed them to raise prices of motor fuels and power tariffs, but the benchmark surrendered most of those gains, ending 2.5% lower at 2,760.42, on worries about the impact on consumers, as well as a rebound in crude-oil prices.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index declined 0.6 percent to 13,857.47 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index shed 0.1 percent to close at 22,714.96 points.
Leading the losses in Tokyo, shares of Toyota sank 1.9% and Nissan Motor Co. shrank 2%. Meanwhile, Advantest Corp. saw its shares give up 1.4%.
Also lower in Tokyo, shares of Citigroup Inc. dropped 3.7% in Tokyo. Overnight, The Wall Street Journal reported that the company may lay off as many as 10% of the 65,000 employees in its investment-banking division.
Elsewhere:
The Jakarta composite index slipped 0.5 percent to 2,359.17.
The Singapore Straits index lost 0.7 percent to 2,981.78.
The Philippine composite index closed down 3.1 percent at 2,499.38.
The South Korean index was down 0.9 percent at 1,715.59.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.1% to 5,283.70.
New Zealand's NZX 50 index rose 0.1% to 3,287.56.
with files from other wire services
