Most Asian stocks fell on Friday after the regional benchmark index closed on Thursday at a seven-year high.
Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd dropped 9.2 percent, as retailers led declines in Japan. Alibaba Health Information Technology Ltd (阿里健康信息技術), a unit of China’s biggest e-commerce operator, sank 12 percent after Wang Jian (王堅) resigned as chairman and chief executive officer.
Energy companies advanced, with services contractor WorleyParsons Ltd surging 8.7 percent in Sydney on high volume, although the company said it was unaware of any unannounced information.
More than two shares dropped for each that rose on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index, which slid 0.2 percent to 154.07 as of 6:07pm in Tokyo. The measure closed at its highest level since January 2008 on Thursday and was poised to end the week 1.1 percent higher. Japan’s TOPIX fell 0.7 percent to erase its weekly gain.
“Earnings expectations have already been priced in for the most part,” Juichi Wako, a senior strategist at Nomura Holdings Inc in Tokyo, said by phone. “In that sense we’re in a state of wait-and-see.”
In Taiwan, the TAIEX closed below the 9,600-point mark on Friday as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) took a beating after the world’s largest contract chipmaker gave a cautious second-quarter sales forecast, dealers said.
Selling in the semiconductor sector spread to other technology stocks, and financial stocks followed suit late in the session, they said.
Largan Precision Co (大立光), a smartphone camera lens supplier to Apple Inc, was one of the few high-tech stocks to buck the broader market’s downturn after it announced a higher-than-expected gross margin for the January-March period, they said.
TSMC shed 3.06 percent to NT$142.50, while Largan closed 0.90 percent higher at NT$2,810.
The TAIEX fell 0.88 percent on Friday to 9,570.93. It also declined from 9,617.70 the previous Friday.
In other markets on Friday, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index slid 1.2 percent. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index fell 0.3 percent, while South Korea’s KOSPI gained 0.2 percent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped 0.3 percent, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index gained 2.2 percent to extend its highest close since March 2008. Singapore’s Straits Times Index retreated 0.2 percent.
Manila was flat, while losses spread across the region, with Jakarta ending down 0.19 percent, Kuala Lumpur losing 0.11 percent, Mumbai declining 0.78 percent and Bangkok edging down 0.2 percent.
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