Some US retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc reported sales last year that missed forecasts as shoppers cut spending as unemployment rose, a Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi survey showed.
Canon fell 4.3 percent to ¥5,570. The maker of Eos cameras gets 70 percent of its revenue from overseas. Sony Corp, the maker of Vaio computers, declined 0.3 percent to ¥3,670.
Hong Kong's Sun Hung Kai Properties jumped 11 percent to HK$43 this week, its biggest weekly gain since December 2001. Paul Louie, an analyst at UBS Securities, said in a report that shares of the city's biggest real estate company by sales remains the brokerage's "top pick" among other developers.
UBS, which has a "buy" rating on the stock, said volume and prices of the property market are continuing to improve.
Taiwan
Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision advanced 15 percent to NT$146, ending the week at its highest since May 28. The company's shares surged after it announced plans to sell bonds convertible to shares to fund purchases of materials. Some of the proceeds will be used for working capital, Hon Hai said.
South Korea's Samsung Electronics, the world's second-largest maker of semiconductors, rose 2.6 percent this week to 394,000 won. The company expects combined domestic and export sales from its China plants of US$10 billion, 18 percent higher than its earlier forecast of US$8.5 billion, Han Chang Ho, Samsung's Beijing-based general manager, said in an interview.
Hynix Semiconductor Inc, the No. 3 global supplier of computer memory chips, surged 10 percent this week to 8,060 won.
Semiconductor-related shares were also lifted as the price of the most widely used computer-memory chips rose to a five-month high. The spot price of the benchmark 256-megabit, 266-megahertz double-data-rate dynamic random-access memory chip earlier this week climbed to its highest since Feb. 6, according to Dramexchange.com.
Week ahead
Investors will look at earnings at home and abroad to gauge whether gains in the region are sustainable.
Samsung Electronics announces earnings Wednesday. In the US, Microsoft Corp, the world's top software company, and top chipmaker Intel Corp will report results. International Business Machines Corp, the world's biggest seller of computer services, will also announce its earnings.
"Those companies can set the tone for the entire information-technology industry's outlook," said Jeon Woo Dong, who manages the equivalent of US$510 million at KB Investment Trust Management Co in Seoul.
"If they come out good, it could be a big boost for the markets. I'm optimistic," he said.
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