The yen weakened 1.9 percent to ?109.04 against the dollar yesterday after media reports said the government raised its terror alert level to its highest since March.
Also in the week, Shinsei Bank Ltd, which raised US$2.2 billion in Japan's biggest initial public offering in almost four years, rose 58 percent on its debut on Thursday as investors bet the lender's management will extend a run of profitability. The shares retreated almost 10 percent on Friday to ?748.
In Hong Kong, Legend slid 10 percent. The company reported third-quarter profit of HK$325.1 million (US$42 million), missing the HK$350 million median forecast of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Goldman, Sachs & Co cut its earnings-per-share estimate for this year by 18 percent and next year's forecast by 11 percent.
South Korean chemical products makers were the worst performers on the Kospi index, dropping 4.6 percent as a group.
SK, the nation's largest refiner, sank 11 percent, while S-Oil Corp, the third largest, tumbled 8.7 percent.
A US$1 increase in oil prices shaves 0.1 percentage point from South Korea's economic growth rate, cuts US$750 million from the trade surplus and increases consumer prices by 0.15 percentage point, the commerce ministry said.
The TAIEX gained 1.8 percent, extending the previous week's 3.1 percent advance.
AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), the island's largest maker of flat-panel displays, rallied 15 percent, completing its best week since Aug. 15 after a Chinese-language newspaper reported the company's first-quarter profit may surge on strong demand for flat-screen monitors. The company declined to comment.
In Thailand, PTT, the nation's biggest energy company, dropped 3.5 percent. Two cats in Thailand died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the first infection found in the species worldwide, said Thaneerat Santivatra, director of the animal hospital at Kasetsart University.
Elimination of bird flu in Asia is becoming "increasingly challenging" because of the size of the epidemic and the ease with which the H5N1 virus strain is transmitted, the World Health Organization said earlier this week. The central bank last month said that bird flu may reduce Thailand's economic growth this year by 0.2 percentage point.
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