Asian markets ended mostly lower Monday, with energy and mining stocks slipping in Sydney and Tokyo, but optimism over Japan's economy spurred buying in real-estate companies and helped keep the Nikkei just above the 10,000 level.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index settled back 96.15 points, or 1%, to close the week’s first session at 10,039.67.
In Hong Kong, profit taking in property and financial stocks led declines, sending the Hang Seng Index down 390.72 points, or 2.1%, to 18,498.96
Commodity stocks were starting to give back some ground after their recent gains, with metal prices slightly lower. Fortescue was down 7.2% in Sydney, with BHP Billiton off 2.7% and Rio Tinto down 2.2%. Sumitomo Metal Mining slipped 4.6% in Tokyo and Jiangxi Copper was down 4.5% in Hong Kong.
Oil-related shares also lost ground. In Hong Kong, PetroChina fell 3.3% while China Oilfield Services lost 4.3%. Japan's Inpex was down 1.9%.
Sung Hung Kai Properties led shares of Hong Kong-listed developers lower, retreating 2.5%.
Some analysts said the downbeat recession reflected investor concern over the pace of economic growth in the second half.
NEC Electronics was up 1.1% after a Nikkei report that Renesas Technology and other leading semiconductor manufacturers were expected to operate their plants around 50% of capacity in the April-June quarter, up from the lows of less than 40% for the preceding three months.
But Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group fell 6.9% on a Nikkei report it was expected to raise in excess of 900 billion yen ($9.16 billion U.S.) from a public offering of common stock slated for this month, more than the initially planned 800 billion yen.
In Australia, Goodman Group jumped 8.9% after the Australian Financial Review reported, without citing sources, that China Investment Corp. would buy a stake after six weeks of talks.
Taiwan shares dropped by the most in two months, with Alex Huang, assistant vice president at Mega Securities, saying investors were cutting their losses after the index's 6% decline last week. TSMC shed 4.8% and smaller competitor United Microelectronics fell by its daily limit, or 6.8%.
In currencies, the U.S. dollar was at 98.25 yen, from 98.39 yen, though off a low of 97.96 yen as the dollar generally benefited from some safe-haven demand.
July Nymex crude-oil futures were 94 cents lower at $71.10 U.S. a barrel, after falling 64 cents Friday.
Spot gold slipped $8 from Friday in New York, to $930.30 U.S. a troy ounce.
CHINA
Ping An Insurance climbed 2.3% in Shanghai, but its Hong Kong-listed shares fell 3.2%, after saying Friday it planned to raise its stake in Shenzhen Development Bank to 30%. Shenzhen Development Bank rose by its 10% trading limit in Shanghai.
Citigroup lowered its investment rating on Ping An's shares to "hold" from "buy" saying the acquisition would do little to improve its banking business.
Elsewhere:
China’s Shanghai Composite Index gained 59.91 points, or 2.1%, to 2,966.19
Singapore’s Straits Times Index lost 60.51 points, or 2.6%, to 2,316.56
South Korea’s Kospi Index slid 16.17 points, or 1.1%, to 1,412.42
Taiwan’s Taiex stumbled 222.67 or 3.5%, to 6,225.56
New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index added 15.33 points, or 0.6% to 2,825.16
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gave back 30.50 points or 0.8% to 4,031.70
