Market Update
Asian markets ended mostly lower Tuesday amid profit booking following gains in recent sessions.
At the end of the day's trade, the Nikkei lost 0.4%. The Shanghai Composite ended flat while the Hang Seng erased 0.5%.
The Sensex was also flat and the All Ordinaries edged down 0.2%.
Markets in the region had scored healthy gains Monday. But sentiment looked fragile at open today following weak cues from Wall Street overnight. Investors also booked profits and moved to the sidelines ahead of some important U.S. data points to be released later in the global trading day.
In other asset classes, crude oil prices were down in Asia after soft data yesterday from China, the world's second-biggest consumer of crude.
The continuing diplomatic standoff over Ukraine also remained in focus.
Stocks on the Move
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group reversed losses of over 2% and was up 0.8%. The Wall Street Journal reported the bank is in talks with RBS to buy its U.S. unit RBS Citizens.
Murata Manufacturing was down 0.2% on profit-taking after rising over 6% initially. The electronics parts manufacturer counts Apple as a key client.
Automakers were mostly quiet.
In Hong Kong, insurers initially fell after Malaysia said the missing Boeing flight has been confirmed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean. Ping An Insurance reversed 0.7% while China life Insurance ended flat. China Pacific Insurance, however, gained 0.6%.
In Mumbai, Reliance Industries fell 3.1% after the Election Commission asked the government to defer a hike in gas prices set for April 1.
Among others, Wipro gave up 2.9%, SSLT erased 1.6%, Axis Bank lost over 1% and Mahindra & Mahindra eased 1%.
In Sydney, BHP Billiton traded up 0.5% while Fortescue Metals was up 1.6%.
But Santos and Woodside slipped 1.3% and 0.7% each, respectively.
Macquarie Group was up a further 0.2% following strong gains yesterday.