Asian stocks traded mostly lower Friday, with Hong Kong-listed banks and Japanese tech firms among the major decliners, ahead of key U.S jobs data due later in the global trading day.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 average slipped 62.83 points, or 0.7%, to end the week at 9,492.21
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index collapsed 304.28 points, or 1.3%, to 22,949.60
Banking stocks were one of the weak spots, with China Construction Bank Corp. off 1.9%, and Bank of China Ltd. lower by 1.2% in Hong Kong.
Several reports raised the possibility of a policy-tightening move by the People’s Bank of China over the coming three-day weekend, as the central bank has made such holiday-timed moves in recent months.
Property stocks, which also tend to be sensitive to monetary policy actions, traded similarly lower in Hong Kong, with Hang Lung Properties Ltd. ending down 2.6%, and Sino Land Co. shedding 3% of its value.
On the upside, Hong Kong telecom PCCW Ltd. jumped 4.4% on news it has received the stock exchange’s approval to list its telecom assets in the form of a business trust.
Shares of MGM China Holdings Ltd. rose 1.8% on its first day of trading, but the gains appeared to suck oxygen out of other Macau gambling shares, with Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. down 6.6% and SJM Holdings Ltd. falling 4.9%.
Among decliners in Tokyo, Elpida Memory Inc. dropped 2.4%, adding to its Thursday losses, when an iSuppli report said first-quarter dynamic-random-access memory-chip sales were lower than expected. Likewise, Renesas Electronics Corp. fell 2.4%.
Shares of Sony Corp. dropped 0.6% after a hacker group claimed on Thursday it had broken into the company’s movie-unit website and stolen customer information, the latest in a string of security breaches.
Meanwhile, Mazda Motor Corp. surrendered 1%, after a Nikkei news report that it was in talks with Ford Motor Co. to end a joint venture and would close all of its U.S. production within the next couple years.
Despite the general downward trend in Australia, shares in Foster’s Group Ltd climbed 3.5% following reports Molson Coors Brewing Co. is in talks with Grupo Modelo SAB de CV to jointly acquire the Australian beverage maker.
Foster’s said it had heard of the speculation but wasn’t aware of any unannounced information that could explain the rise in its shares.
In other markets;
Shanghai’s CSI 300 Composite Index regained 30.64 points, or 1%, to 2,986.35
Taiwan’s Taiex Index tacked on 54.92 points, or 0.6%, to 9,046.28
Korea’s Kospi index shaved off 0.73 points to 2,113.47
Singapore’s Straits Times Index shed 14.93 points, or 0.5%, to 3,145.67
New Zealand’s NZX 50 lost 11.06 points, or 0.3%, to 3,514.76
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gave back 17.30 points, or 0.4%, to 4,583.10
