Asian markets ended mixed Monday, with Shanghai-listed stocks advancing as airline and refining stocks gained on a weak recent trend in crude-oil prices, while Sydney shares declined after Australia and New Zealand Banking Group warned higher provisions could take a slice out of its earnings for the year.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed up 19.02 points or 0.1% at 13,353.78 following a 268.55-point fall on Friday while the benchmark Hang Seng index closed down 53.5 points or 0.24% at 22,687.2.
Exporters pared early gains, with Canon losing 0.8%, construction machinery maker Komatsu declining 0.7% and consumer electronics giant Sony slipping 0.2%. Honda Motor plunged 2.9% after the company cut its full-year operating profit forecast last week. Toyota Motor dropped 1.2%.
Real estate stocks closed higher. Sumitomo Realty & Development jumped 2.6%, Mitsubishi Estate gained 1.0% and Mitsui Fudosan advanced 1.2%. Oil-related stocks also finished higher. Oil & gas miner Inpex Holdings rose 1.7%, Nippon Mining Holdings surged 2.3%, Nippon Oil gained 1.2%, trading house Mitsubishi Corp surged 2.6% and Mitsui & Co soared 5.7%.
In the banking space, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group slipped 0.2%, but Mizuho Financial Group jumped 2.5% and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group climbed 0.6%.
Fast Retailing jumped 5.5% on speculation that sales of summer items at its Uniqlo casual clothing chain will get a major boost in an unusually hot summer so far.
Advantest slumped 6.1% after the chip equipment maker reported a net loss for the April-June quarter on Friday.
The Chinese stock market closed higher Monday, led by real estate developers and lenders, on speculation that measures to combat inflation will be eased. The Shanghai Composite Index gained 37.91 points or 1.32% to close at 2,903.01.
Among lenders, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China jumped 2.1% and Bank of Communications rose 1.8%. Property developer China Vanke climbed 1.1% and Shenzhen-based Lvgem Estate surged by the daily limit of 10.0%.
Yanzhou Coal Mining surged 3.7% and China Shenhua Energy advanced 2.5%. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp or Sinopec jumped 2.9% and index heavyweight PetroChina gained 2.4%.
China Railway Erju, the unit of China Railway Group, added 1.2% after the company said it won contracts worth a total of 2.7 billion yuan.
Elsewhere:
South Korea's Kospi ended flat at 1,598.29.
New Zealand's NZX 50 index edged up 0.1% to 3,256.57.
Singapore's Straits Times Index declined 0.4% to 2,911.25.
India's Sensitive Index rose 0.7% to 14,379.46.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gave up 1% to 4,922.10.
with files from other wire services
