Market Update
Asian markets traded lower Friday as investors worried about slower economic growth in China.
Data released today showed growth in China's services sector fell to a four-month low in December as business expectations declined.
The official purchasing managers' index (PMI) for the services sector dropped to 54.6 in December from 56.0 in November.
The weak services data came on heels of yesterday's poor manufacturing PMI data, which showed growth in Chinese manufacturing activity slowed in December on the back of lower exports.
Risk sentiment drooped even as investors cashed out of riskier assets like equities and moved towards safer havens like yen, gold and bonds.
Among the regional indexes, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was the worst performer, ending 2.2% lower amid China's growth concerns.
Mainland China's Shanghai Composite erased 1.2% while Sydney's All Ordinaries finished 0.3% lower, off earlier lows, however.
Mumbai's BSE Sensex also managed to pare some of the day's losses, ending 0.2% lower.
Japan's Nikkei remained closed.
Stocks on the Move
Resources stocks in Hong Kong extended losses from the previous session. Aluminum Corp. of China fell 1.5% while Jiangxi Copper and Angang Steel dropped around 1.5% each.
Among oil firms, CNOOC slumped 4% while China Shenhua Energy plunged 4.6%.
Financials and property developers were other stocks that experienced heavy selling pressure -- the country's largest lender ICBC retreated 2.7% while global banking giant HSBC Holdings erased 2%.
Real estate firms Sino Land Co., China Overseas Land & Investment lost around 3% each.
On the mainland, Gemdale Corp. plunged 5.7% while China Vanke Ltd. traded down 2.4%.
Miners in Australia also traded lower. China being Australia's key trading partner, any change in the former's industrial activity affects the latter's mining industry.
Index leader BHP Billiton erased 1.1% while Rio Tinto slipped 0.5%. Gold miner Newcrest Mining, however, continued to log gains, up 2.6% tracking uptick in gold futures.
Among other rare gainers, Ten Network Holdings bounced over 5% in Sydney while some casino players also found support in Hong Kong after data showed 19% increase in gambling revenues in Macau in December 2013.
Wynn Macau and Galaxy Entertainment were both up a percent each, but Sands China gave up initial gains to finish down 0.9%.
Mumbai players tracked their global counterparts lower with capital goods, power stocks and banking firms leading the declines.
Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Powers and Tata Motors reversed around 2.5% to 3.9% while, L&T, NTPC and ONGC gave up around 2%.
Bucking the trend, some IT services providers and auto manufacturers climbed. TCS added 2.%, Infosys gained 2.6% while Maruti Suzuki and Hero MotoCorp accelerated 1.7% and 0.8% respectively.