Japanese stocks fell on Tuesday after sharp declines in oil and other commodity shares offset news that the economy had dodged a recession in the third quarter.
The Nikkei 225 index lost 205.55 points, or 1%, to 19.492.60,
Hong Kong stocks closed at a two-month low on Tuesday, tracking sluggish global markets, as slumping oil prices dented already fragile investor confidence ahead of a likely U.S. rate hike.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng faltered 298.09 points, or 1.3%, to 21,905.13, the lowest close since Oct 6
Shares fell across the board, with an index trading energy stocks slumping 2.8%, as oil giants including CNOOC and PetroChina tanked after oil prices hit seven-year lows.
However, Chinese carriers listed in Hong Kong, including Air China, China Eastern Airlines Corp Ltd and China Southern Airlines were in positive territory, as investors bet lower oil prices would cut their costs.
Reports showed the revised Japanese third-quarter Gross Domestic Product grew 1% on-quarter, on an annualized basis. The number beat previous estimation of a 0.8% contraction during the same period. The capital spending component saw an upward revision of 0.6% on-quarter against the previous estimate of a 1.3% decline.
Blue-chip stocks ended the session in negative territory, with shares in Toyota, Sony, Mitsubishi Electric, and Toshiba down as much as 3%.
The yen traded at 123.08 against the U.S. dollar.
In Korea, shares in Samsung Electronics closed unchanged after trimming gains from the morning session while Samsung C&T fell in the red in the afternoon, closing 0.4% lower.
Samsung Engineering ended up 14% after Reuters reported Jay Lee, heir to the Samsung Group and also vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, will buy up to 300 billion won worth of shares in the company if its rights issue was not fully subscribed.
In Australia, shares in oil producer Santos closed down 13.1%.
According to reports, Woodside Petroleum officially withdrew its 11.64-billion-Australian-dollar ($8.46 billion U.S.) takeover bid of rival Oil Searchto consolidate market position. Oil Search had already rebuffed the bid. Shares of Oil Search ended lower by 16.4% while Woodside was down nearly 4%.
Resources stocks also traded in the red. Rio Tinto was down 4.3% while BHP Billiton skidded 5.2%. South32 saw heavy losses of 8% while Sandfire Resources was down 1.9%.
Oil prices suffered a sharp decline during U.S. trading as a result of a global supply glut. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) failed to reach an agreement to reduce production levels when it met on Friday.
CHINA
Chinese markets closed in the red as November trade data remained weak. Exports fell by a worse-than-expected 6.8% on-year, marking the fifth straight month of declines. Imports, meanwhile, were down 8.7% on-year. There was a trade surplus of $54.10 billion U.S.
The CSI 300 in Shanghai dropped 64.59 points, or 1.8%, to 3,623.02,
The Chinese yuan opened at its lowest level in three months. The People's Bank of China set the midpoint rate at 6.4078 per dollar ahead of the open.
At market close, the yuan traded at 6.4181 against the U.S. dollar.
In other markets
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index faded 24.89 points, or 0.9%, to 2,876.03
The Kospi index in Korea gave back 14.63 points, or 0.8%, to 1,949.04
Taiwan’s Taiex index moved down 110.41 points, or 1.3%, to 8,343.86
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 fell 29.43 points, or 0.5%, to 6,035
The ASX 200 slipped 47.09 points, or 0.9%, to 5,108.61
