Hong Kong shares finished lower Thursday as wireless heavyweight China Mobile Ltd. and fashion designer and retailer Esprit Holdings tumbled on broker downgrades and worries about their earnings prospects.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed up 15.29 points or 0.12% at 12,768.25 while the benchmark Hang Seng closed down 492.43 points or 2.29% at 20,972.29.
On the economic front, Japan's Finance Ministry said shortly before the market opened that foreign residents sold a net 214.5 billion yen worth of Japanese stocks for the week ended August 23. Foreigners were net sellers for the fourth time in five weeks. Meanwhile, foreigners were net purchasers of Japan bonds and notes for the week, as they bought a net 557.9 billion yen in Japan bonds and notes during the period.
Semiconductor equipment makers gained, while real estate stocks closed lower. Advantest jumped 3.3% and Tokyo Electron gained 2.5% on a stronger-than-expected report on U.S. durable goods orders for July. In the real estate sector, Sumitomo Realty & Development lost 2.5% and Mitsubishi Estate dropped 1.7%, hit by worries that office rents in central Tokyo fell in July. Zecs plunged over 8% and Mitsui Fudosan plummeted over 3%.
Auto stocks and other exporters were hit due to a stronger yen. Sony slipped 0.5%, Nikon fell 2.3%, Komatsu lost 2.4%, Honda Motor declined 1.1% and Toyota Motor closed unchanged.
Among banks, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group lost 0.9%, Mizuho Financial fell 1.1%, Sumitomo Mitsui advanced 0.9% and Resona Holdings shed 1.5%.
Consumer loan company Acom surged 8.8% on news that Mitsubishi UFJ intends to raise its stake in consumer lender Acom to about 40% from the present 15% to make it a subsidiary. However, rival Aiful slumped 8.0% amid worries that its business might suffer if a major bank does not back it.
Oil explorer Inpex Holdings advanced 0.8%, Nippon Oil added 0.3% and Nippon Mining Holding jumped 21% on the back of higher oil prices.
Office machinery maker Ricoh advanced 2.9% after the company agreed to buy U.S.-based equipment distributor Ikon Office Solutions Inc. for $1.62 billion in cash. Rival Canon tumbled 5.4% on concerns that it could lose half of its copier sales in North America.
The Chinese market closed higher, led by financial stocks, ending a two-day losing streak. Property stocks fell after the central bank called on commercial banks to tighten lending to property developers. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed up 8.0 points or 0.34% at 2,350.14. The key index has lost 55.3% so far this year.
In the financial sector, China Pacific Insurance gained 2.7% and Ping An Insurance climbed 2.0%. Brokerage CITIC Securities jumped 3.8% and Haitong Securities advanced 0.7%. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rose by1.0%.
China Vanke fell 1.0% and China Merchants Property Development plummeted 2.7% after The People's Bank of China said Wednesday in a circular released jointly with the banking regulator that loans for land banking in which the acquired property is used as collateral should not run for more than two years.
Index heavyweight PetroChina dropped 0.7% after the refiner reported that its first-half net profit fell 34.5% year-over-year to 53.62 billion yuan, under international accounting standards, due to refining losses and higher windfall profit taxes.
Huaneng Power International advanced 1.4% although the company posted a net loss of 470.33 million yuan, against a profit of 2.96 billion yuan a year earlier. GD Power Development shed 0.6% after the company's first-half net profit fell 44.36% from a year ago to 328.52 million yuan
Elsewhere:
Taiwan's Taiex closed down 0.7% at 7,033.
Singapore's STI closed down 0.5% at 2,691.
Malaysia's KLCI closed up 0.3% at 1,070.
Indonesia's Jakarta Composite index closed up 0.7% at 2,144.
India's Sensex closed down 1.7% at 14,048.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.1%.
New Zealand's NZX 50 index inched up 0.2%
with files from other wire services
