Stocks Mixed as Commodities Retreat

Dec 04,2008 00:00 by saroja
Asian stocks traded mixed to lower Friday, with commodity stocks retreating in the wake of overnight falls in crude-oil prices, while investors chased up Hong Kong-listed stocks such as China Mobile, which are leveraged to the China growth story.

Shares of Honda Motor were up 0.2% amid expectations the auto maker will announce its withdrawal from Formula One racing because of the sport's high costs and the car maker's inability to fund a racing team as it struggles with a difficult global sales environment. Honda President Takeo Fukui was due to hold a press conference at its Tokyo headquarters Friday afternoon.

Hong Kong shares staged the biggest gains in the region, led by financial stocks and telecom stocks.

The U.S. dollar advanced moderately against its Japanese counterpart, trading at 92.46 yen late morning in Tokyo, up form its level of 92.22 yen in late New York. Among stocks on the decline, BHP Billiton's shares were down 5.2%, while Mitsubishi UFJ Group slumped 5.4%.

Shares of Nomura Holdings were up 3.2% after the broker, Japan's largest, announced Thursday it will cut up to 1,000 jobs to slim payroll costs following its acquisition of some of the operations of now-defunct Lehman Brothers.

Shares of Chugai Pharmaceutical fell 9.5% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration delayed approval of a rheumatoid arthritis drug being jointly developed by Chugai and Roche Holdings.

Shares of Nippon Oil jumped 7%, extending gains from the previous session after announcing it had reached an agreement to merge with Nippon Mining Holdings.

Investors were on a mostly defensive footing following a softer session for U.S. shares Thursday, which saw the S&P 500 decline 25.52 points, or 2.9%, to 845.22.

Japan's benchmark index, the Nikkei 225, closed out morning trade 0.7% higher at 7977.77. The Hang Seng Index was up 1.9% at 13767.78, and China's Shanghai Composite added 0.6% at 2013.25.

Hong Kong-listed shares of Ping An Insurance were up 5.6%, while China Mobile's climbed 2.7%.

Sydney-listed coal miner Felix Resources saw its shares soar nearly 40% after the firm said it has received expressions of interest from a foreign party.

Among other indexes, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.03% at 3531.10, South Korea's Kospi added 2.1% at 1027.02, New Zealand NZSX-50 eased 0.4% to 2718.52, and Taiwan's Taiex fell 0.2% to 4246.34. Singapore's Straits Times Index added 1.1% to 1661.60.

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