Asian shares fell Friday, with a sharp overnight drop in crude oil hitting energy names, ahead of the closely-watched U.S. nonfarm payrolls report.
Markets in Japan again had the day off.
The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong slid 163.53 points, or 0.8%, to close the week at 21,086
The U.S. payrolls numbers will cap a week of focus on global jobs data, including numbers Wednesday showing that the euro-zone unemployment rate reached a record high in March.
Energy shares took an especially heavy hit in Asia after benchmark U.S. crude-oil futures plunged 2.6% in New York trading Thursday.
In Hong Kong, shares of Cnooc Ltd. lost 1.3%, while those of PetroChina Co. dropped 1.9%.
Sydney-listed Woodside Petroleum Ltd. and Origin Energy Ltd. both fell 2.2%, while Santos Ltd. lost 3%.
Caltex Australia Ltd. declined 0.9% after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission announced it has started a formal investigation into the sharing of price information by gasoline retailers.
Overnight weakness in other commodities also hit resource shares across Asia. Australian gold miner Newcrest Mining Ltd. dropped 3.8%, while Rio Tinto Ltd. traded down 1.1%.
In Hong Kong, Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. fell 3%, and resource-focused conglomerate Citic Pacific Ltd. traded lower by 1.7%.
Among major exporters moving lower, Hong Kong-listed apparel firm Esprit Holdings Ltd. down 5.5%, and Seoul-traded Samsung Electronics Co. losing 2.9%, despite the release of its new Galaxy phone.
Separately, shares in Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. fell 1.8%. The real-estate company, one of the world’s largest, said its former chairman Walter Kwok was arrested in connection with a high-profile bribery probe.
In other markets;
Shanghai’s CSI 300 Composite Index gained 24.36 points, or 0.9%, to 2,715.88
Singapore's Straits Times Index dropped 10.35 points, or 0.3%, to 2,990.59
Korea’s Kospi Index shed 5.96 points, or 0.3%, to 1,989.15
Taiwan’s Taiex Index picked up 41.42 points, or 0.5%, to 7,700.95
New Zealand’s NXZ Index lost 30.49 points, or 0.9%, to 3,549.78
Australia’s ASX Index fell 32.92 points, or 0.7%, to 4,396.04
