Asian markets ended mixed Wednesday, with exporters such as Honda Motor Co. dropping in Tokyo on a strengthened Japanese yen, while Hong Kong advanced in the wake of strong earnings from market heavyweight China Mobile Ltd.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed down 25.75 points or 0.2% at 12,752.96 while the Hang Seng Index finished 1.9% higher at 21,464.72.
On the economic front, traders had little economic data to digest on Wednesday. In the U.S., traders await durable goods orders and GDP numbers on Thursday and Friday respectively, while Japan will announce its July consumer price index, jobless rate, household spending and other data on Friday.
Property stocks fell after homebuilder Sohken Homes said Tuesday that it had filed for court protection and exporters declined as the yen strengthened against the dollar.
Sohken Homes tumbled 12. 4 %, Nomura Real Estate Holdings lost 2.8%, Mitsubishi Estate dropped 2.1% and Sumitomo Realty & Development plunged 2.9%.
Among exporters, Toyota Motor fell 2.7%, Nissan Motor plummeted 4.7%, Minebea lost 1.0%, Komatsu lost 2.6%, Sony gave away 1.4% and Canon slipped 0.2%.
In the financial sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group declined 0.4%, Mizuho Financial Group lost 0.7%, and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group dropped 0.8%. Top brokerage Nomura Holdings closed unchanged, while Daiwa Securities Group gave away 2.2%. Sompo Japan Insurance gained 1.5% and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance surged 3.9%.
Oil and gas miner, Inpex Holdings advanced 1.2%, Nippon Mining Holdings gained 1.6% and Nippon Oil added 0.3% on higher oil prices.
In the tech sector, Advantest closed flat, Fanuc gained 1.0%, and Kyocera edged up 0.3%, while Matsushita Electrical Industrial dropped 1.6% and NEC fell 1.6%.
Mitsubishi Electric gained 0.8% after a Nikkei report said that Japan's third-largest integrated maker of electronics products plans to invest more than 10 billion yen and nearly triple its production capacity for highly efficient solar cells by the end of March 2012.
The Chinese market closed lower for a second day, as investors remained cautious amid concerns about government action to support the markets. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed down 7.94 points or 0.34% at 2,342.15 after falling to as low as 2,310.46.
Brokerage stocks rose on speculation about the introduction of margin trading and insurers gained ground. Airlines were lower after Air China and China Eastern Airlines reported a fall in first-half profit due to higher jet fuel prices.
Among brokerages, Haitong Securities jumped 4.4% after falling more than 7% on Tuesday and Guoyuan Securities surged by the 10% daily limit despite announcing a 55.36% fall in its first-half net profit. China Life Insurance gained 2.6% and Ping An Insurance advanced 1.8%.
China Eastern Airlines plunged 3.5% after the company's net profit declined 28.5% on year to 41.62 million yuan. Air China fell 1.1% after its first-half net profit declined 1.4% from a year earlier to 1.28 billion yuan.
Bank of Communications edged up 0.4% after the bank reported that its first-half net profit rose 81.2% from a year earlier to 15.51 billion yuan.
Index heavyweight PetroChina dropped 2.3%, while China Offshore Oil Engineering tumbled by the 10% daily limit after its first-half net profit fell 33.47% from a year ago.
China Shipping Container Lines lost 1.7%. The company reported a 43.19% fall in its first-half net profit, on year-over-year basis, to 698.65 million yuan due to higher fuel costs.
The Hong Kong market closed sharply higher, extending gains in the afternoon as heavyweight China Mobile surged after reporting better-than-expected first-half earnings. The benchmark Hang Seng index closed up 408.06 points or 1.94% at the day's high of 21,464.72.
Oil producers CNOOC and PetroChina gained ahead of their first-half results and following a rise in crude oil prices. China COSCO Holdings, Jiangxi Copper and Tsingtao Brewery outperformed after their results announcements.
China Mobile rose 3.5%, CNOOC jumped 3.8%, PetroChina gained 3.4%, China COSCO soared 8.2%, Jiangxi Copper surged 9.5% and Tsingtao Brewery climbed 7.0%.
Elsewhere:
Taiwan's Taiex closed up 1.7% at 7,080.
Singapore's STI closed down 0.1% at 2,705.
Malaysia's KLCI closed down 0.3% at 1,067.
Indonesia's Jakarta Composite index closed up 1.1% at 2,131.
South Korea's Kospi rose 0.3% to 1,493.92.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 inched up 0.1% to 5,011.20.
New Zealand's NZX 50 index dipped 0.1% to 3,318.52.
with files from other wire services
