Asian stocks closed mixed on Friday with fears of further interest rate rises in the US again haunting the markets and sidelining buyers, dealers said.
They said corporate results due out next week had also held investors back amid uncertainty over whether profits will meet expectations. Seoul, buoyed by strong local economic forecasts, outperformed by rising 1.03 percent while Bangkok, Shanghai and Mumbai also gained.
Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong were flat, but all other markets were lower with Tokyo down 1.19 percent despite a sharp jump in machinery orders.
Negative sentiment was also helped along after Chicago Federal Reserve President Michael Moskow who recently said that US interest rates may need to be tweaked some more to keep inflation expectations from rising.
Taipei
The TAIEX closed 0.53 percent lower, with sentiment in the key technology sector hit by the NASDAQ's fall overnight.
Dealers said the market appears to be tuck in a range after sustained gains up to the Lunar New Year at the end of last month and there are few fresh incentives around as Wall Street and the other major market also seem to be marking time.
The TAIEX lost 35.21 points at 6,594.92 on turnover of NT$101.37 billion (US$3.13 billion).
"As in the previous session, there were a handful of star stocks that were not strong enough to ignite an across-the-board advance," SinoPac Securities Corp (
The pattern of rangebound trading seems likely to persist in the near term now that positive earnings for the fourth quarter are increasingly taken as a reason for pocketing previous gains, he said.
People will think twice about buying into technology majors given the seasonally-weaker first quarter, he added.
Tokyo share prices closed down more than 1 percent on Friday despite a jump in local machinery orders as many foreign buyers stayed away given concerns about rising US interest rates.
Dealers said a sharp rise in Japan's December machinery orders, a closely watched measure of capital investment, was also marred somewhat by a lackluster outlook for the quarter to March.
The NIKKEI-225 index dropped 181.84 points to 16,257.83.
"Share prices ended weaker," said Hideo Mizutani, chief strategist at Sieg Securities. "This is because of lingering concerns about a lack of active inflows of funds from offshore investors."
He said foreign investors were unwilling to take new positions on concerns about further US interest rate hikes.
Seoul share prices closed 1.03 percent higher, rising for a second session, with Kookmin Bank, Hyundai Motor and KTG leading the advance.
Dealers said the market got off to a strong start despite a mixed performance on Wall Street, with investors now looking past Thursday's interest rate hike and options expiry to the prospects for a continued economic recovery.
The KOSPI index rose 13.57 points to 1,335.23.
Kyobo Securities analyst Lee Woo-Hyun said there "were no particular leads on the local front," leaving investors to hope for a positive US showing to ensure further gains next week.
Hong Kong share prices closed flat in rangebound trading as the Chicago Federal Reserve president's comments overnight triggered fresh concerns over the outlook for interest rates.
The Hang Seng Index was up 12.52 points at 15,425.95.
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