Asian stocks closed mixed on Friday with a lack of direction from Wall Street and another fall in Tokyo dampening sentiment after an appreciating yen eroded the value of Japanese exporters.
Dealers said gains were capped amid traditional low volumes and window-dressing ahead of year-end position squaring. As a result Sydney and Shanghai each registered a modest improvement.
The TAIEX gained on the prospect of improving ties with China while Wellington also rose after its currency bucked the trend and eased against the greenback.
Elsewhere, Manila was again punished by investors who fear there could be more than just talk in rumors of another plot to oust the government.
Seoul slumped 1.24 percent on its rising currency and the alleged fraud by cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-Suk which rattled biotech shares. Singapore was flat for a third straight trading day. Hong Kong and Bangkok were also flat.
Taipei share prices closed 1.47 percent higher due to renewed investor hopes for an easing of government policy toward China, with year-end window-dressing providing additional support.
Dealers said expectations that Taipei would relax its policy toward Beijing were boosted by a report which said the Financial Supervisory Commission has proposed that local companies should be given more room to maneuver in their China investments as long as they meet certain minimum requirements.
Also supporting the market was futures-related interest, coupled with fresh industry leads, including reports of positive prospects for dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips and thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal-display (TFT-LCD) panels, dealers said.
"Expectations for a relaxation on China-bound investment limits boosted sentiment," First Global Investment Trust Co Ltd (
"Fund managers could have also been in some year-end window-dressing activity in the run-up to the close of the year," he added.
The TAIEX closed up 92.22 points at 6,350.69. Turnover was NT$129.98 billion (US$3.92 billion).
Tokyo share prices closed 0.53 percent lower, shedding earlier gains, as a firmer yen led to a further dumping of exporter shares.
Dealers said the market closely watched the currency market and was heartened when the dollar pulled up from early lows against the yen. Exporters favor a strong dollar as their earnings are in the US currency.
In its third straight fall, the NIKKEI-225 index lost 81.37 points to 15,173.07.
Seoul
Seoul share prices closed 1.24 percent lower on foreign investors sell-offs, with the snowballing scandal over Hwang's research-dampening sentiment.
Dealers said biotechnology and pharmaceutical shares saw heavy losses after allegations that Hwang may have faked key parts of his breakthrough in stem cell research.
The KOSPI index closed down 16.64 points at 1,321.04.
Hong Kong share prices closed little changed, down 0.19 percent on caution ahead of the weekend and following Wall Street's lackluster performance overnight.
The Hang Seng Index closed down 29.21 points at 15,029.81.
Shanghai share prices closed 0.35 percent higher on continued money inflows after consolidation in the previous session with steelmakers, property developers and infrastructure firms driven up by rotational play.
The Shanghai A-share Index added 4.19 points to 1,185.70, while the Shenzhen A-share Index was up 2.82 points or 1.0 percent at 284.13.
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