Market Update
Asian markets finished on either side of the flatline after a choppy session on Thursday.
Among the gainers, the Nikkei was up 1% while Mumbai's Sensex added 0.5%.
On the other side, the Shanghai Composite fell 0.8% while the Hang Seng gave up 0.2%. Sydney's All Ordinaries shed half a percent.
Sentiment was weak at open as investors took cues from Wall Street where stocks ended lower amid escalating tensions between Russia and the West over Ukraine.
Among currencies, the dollar was back above the 102 yen mark and was buying 102.16 yen, helping some stocks, even as most blue chips traded ex-dividend in Japan.
As for economic news, data showed industrial profit growth slowed in China, further eroding investor confidence.
Stocks on the Move
Among shares that traded ex-dividend, Sony was up 1.2% while Panasonic was up 0.1%. But Hitachi gave up 0.5% while Softbank erased 1.7%.
Others like Sharp Corp. and Fast Retailing rallied over 3% each.
Nissan also traded ex-dividend but reversed losses and was up 1.3%. The company also recalled almost 1 million vehicles in the U.S.
Toyota advanced 4.1% as it launched its first share-buyback plan in five years.
In Hong Kong, CITIC Pacific retraced gains of over 20% but was still up 13.6% on its announcement of a reverse merger with its parent Citic Group.
However, Tencent Holdings fell 5.8% after announcing it had bought a stake for $500 million in Korean mobile-gaming firm CJ Games. This is Tencent’s third deal this month alone.
In earnings news, China Eastern Airlines gave up 1.6% while Bank of China was up 1.5% after both companies reported results.
Mumbai's Sensex lost ground after hitting another fresh lifetime high in morning trade as foreign institutional investors continued to pump in money. The 30-share benchmark index, however, recovered from the day's lows.
Top gainers were SBI and Airtel, up 4% each, while Hero MotoCorp. added over 3%. Among other gainers, Gail India, NTCP, Bajaj Auto and HUL improved around 1.4% to 2%.
Separately, India's oil ministry has summoned RIL and consumers who use its KG-D6 gas for a meeting later this week to decide on extending a sales contract beyond the end of this month. Shares of RIL were up 1.3%.
In Sydney, News Corp. was down 2.4% after the company said Lachlan Murdoch was returning to the company.
David Jones traded flat. The retailer said Goldman Sachs now owns 9.2% stake, up from 8.2% earlier.