Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Thursday trade despite gains overnight on Wall Street that led to a record close for both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 dropped 115.17 points, or 0.4%, to 28,791.17.
The Japanese yen traded at 115.14 per U.S. dollar, still weaker than levels below 114.8 seen against the greenback earlier in the week,
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng recovered 25.47 points, or 0.1%, to 23,112.01.
Shares of Chinese artificial intelligence firm SenseTime Group rose more than 4% from their issue price in early trading following their Thursday debut in Hong Kong. The stock later extended those gains and finished its first trading day in Hong Kong 7.27% above its issue price.
SenseTime has been caught in the crossfire of tensions between Beijing and Washington, with the firm earlier this month pushing its Hong Kong IPO back after being placed on a U.S. investment blacklist.
Those moves came as investors continued to assess the economic risks from the omicron COVID variant that has contributed to a surge in infections in places such as the U.S. and U.K.
The World Health Organization also warned Wednesday that new COVID variants could emerge during the pandemic that are “fully resistant to current vaccines or past infection.”
The Australian dollar was at $0.7257 after a recent rise from below $0.724.
In other markets
In China, the CSI 300 regained 38.03 points, or 0.8%, to 4,921.51
In Taiwan, the Taiex demurred 29.44 points, or 0.2%, to 18,218.84
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index faded 11.38 points, or 0.4%, to 3,126.64
In Korea, the Kospi index fell 15.64 points, or 0.5%, to 2,977.65
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 zoomed 100.52 points, or 0.8%, to 13,040.94
In Australia, the ASX 200 moved up 3.57 points, or 0.1%, at 7,513.37.
