Asian stock markets were mostly lower Monday, with shares in China and Hong Kong weighed down by lingering worries over fresh monetary tightening measures from Beijing.
The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo moved up but 0.72 points to 10,751.98
The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong tumbled 130.64 points, or 0.6%, to 21,079.10.
Some investors were also staying on the sidelines ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank Of Japan rate-setting meetings later this week.
The Tokyo market reversed an early rise as investors locked in profits from recent gains ahead of the Bank of Japan meeting. But exporters were getting support from a weaker yen and expectations.
Fuji Electric was up 6.3% on hopes for growing its smart grid market in China, while Canon advanced 3.3% and Toyota Motor rose 0.7%.
JVC Kenwood Holdings slumped 14% after saying on Friday it has restated some of its past earnings due to an investigation into inappropriate accounting methods at its Victor Co. of Japan unit, and now expects a deeper loss for the current fiscal year.
JVC Kenwood, a holding company established in October 2008 through a merger between Victor and Kenwood, said it expects a net loss of Y28.5 billion for this fiscal year ending March, compared with its earlier forecast of a Y20-billion loss.
Financial stocks were weighing on the Korean market, mainly on profit-taking after last week's gains. KB Financial fell 1.9% and Korea Exchange Bank lost 2.8%.
However, Asiana Airlines tacked on 2.7% after the Korea Development Bank denied a local media report on Friday that KDB planned to push for capital reduction at Asiana in return for an injection of KRW120 billion of fresh funds.
In Sydney, Santos rose 0.9% on speculation Arrow Energy will reject an A$4.45-a-share cash offer from Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina Co. According to some analysts, Santos could be a target for Shell. A report in Monday's Australian Financial review said Arrow is set to reject the A$3.26-billion takeover bid from Shell and PetroChina.
CHINA
Hong Kong and China mainland shares were down amid lingering worries over potential monetary tightening by Beijing.
Shanghai’s CSI 300 Index lost 49.94 points, or 1.5%, to 3,183.18.
Beijing has raised banks' reserve requirement ratio -- the amount of cash they have to set aside as reserves -- twice this year as it has sought to curb lending growth after an explosive increase in 2009. Beijing announced the last increase on February 12.
On the mainland, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank was down 0.6% and China Vanke was down 0.9%.
Coal producer Shenhua was down 2.2% in Hong Kong on lower-than-expected full year results and offshore oil explorer Cnooc gained 0.5% on news of its $3.1-billion U.S. purchase of a 50% stake in Argentina's Bridas Energy.
Elsewhere;
Korea’s Kospi index slumped 13.24 points, or 0.8%, to 1,649.50
Singapore’s Straits Times Index 7.03 points, or 0.2%, to 2,874.33
Taiwan’s Taiex Index plummeted 113.41 points, or 1.5%, to 7,634.92
New Zealand’s NZX Index inched up 6.01 points, or 0.2%, to 3,231.15
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 settled 34 points, or 0.7%, to 4,784.10
