Asian Shares Mixed

Asian Shares Mixed

SINGAPORE — Asian stock markets were mixed Friday, with Japanese exporters higher on the yen's recent weakness while BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto lost ground as Australia's competition watchdog said it would probe the miners' planned joint venture.

"We've had a mixed lead into the market given that the Dow (Jones Industrial Average) gave up all of its gains on political concerns around Greece towards the end of the day," said Goldman Sachs JB Were investment adviser Peter Sigley in Wellington.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.9%, Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 0.8% at 10,917.81, South Korea's Kospi Composite was flat, and New Zealand's NZX-50 added 0.1%. DJIA futures were 16 points lower in screen trade.

In Australia, Rio Tinto was down 1.2% and BHP Billiton lost 0.9% after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Thursday said it was planning a searching examination of a planned iron ore joint venture between the two mining giants.

The probe was "not a positive development for the iron ore joint venture and its quest to get regulatory approval," said Credit Suisse analysts. They expected the ACCC to approve the deal but the probability of the planned tie up getting all regulatory approvals by the end of the year has "probably decreased."

The Sydney market was expected to fall further, said Peter Morgan, client adviser at Patersons. "I just think there's going to be a bit further profit-taking before the weekend," he said. "The market's had a good run-up."

Japanese exporters were lifting the Tokyo stock market, helped by the yen's recent weakness. Sony was up 2.4% and Tokyo Electron rose 1.8%.

"There are concerns that the market is overheated with the Nikkei above 10,900, but expectations for (strong) corporate earnings are supporting the buying," said Yumi Nishimura, senior market analyst at Daiwa Securities Capital Markets.

Trade in the Korean stock market was light with investors watching for further developments surrounding the Greek debt problems.

Technology and auto-maker stocks were hurt by profit-taking with Hynix down 1.0% and Hyundai Motor down 0.9% but LG Electronics rose 2.6% as investors picked up the stock on the cheap, after its recent fall.

In New Zealand, clothing retailer Hallenstein Glasson was down 2.1% following the release of its results for its fiscal first half year Thursday. While profits in the six months to Feb. 1 rose 55.9%, investors were cautious as the company noted sales in the first seven weeks for the second half were down 2% on the prior year.

Hallenstein Glasson and Pumpkin Patch were also weighed by news this week that U.S. retailer Gap was entering the Australian market. Pumpkin Patch, a children's clothing retailer, was down 0.9%.

In foreign exchange markets, the euro/dollar pair bounced a little after heavy losses this week, helped by comments from European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet that financial aid for Greece from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund was a "workable solution."

He also sought to clarify comments made on Thursday which weighed on the euro; in a prerecorded television interview aired he said: "If the IMF, or any other instance, were to exercise responsibility in the place of the euro group, in the place of governments, then that would obviously be very, very bad."

Trichet denied criticizing a deal that included IMF financing as very bad; "I said that whatever solution we come up with must support responsibility of governments," he said.

The euro was at $1.3310 from $1.3282 in late New York trade Thursday, and at 123.05 yen from 123.13 yen. The dollar was at 92.44 yen from 92.70 yen.

Masanobu Ishikawa, general manager at Tokyo Forex & Ueda Harlow, said the euro was likely to again fall against the dollar later in the global session. He said there was a growing sense that the common currency was facing fundamental structural problems highlighted by euro zone member divisions on fiscal matters.

"Of course the yen and dollar also have their issues, but the problems facing the euro are so fundamental that you now have people talking even about an eventual fall to parity between the euro and dollar," added Ishikawa.

Japanese government bonds were weakened by the stronger Nikkei and the drop in U.S. Treasurys Thursday. Lead JGB futures were down 0.32 at 138.24 points while the yield on the 10-year cash JGB was up two basis points at 1.380%.

Spot gold was at $1,089.95 per troy ounce, down $1.05 from the New York close. May Nymex crude oil futures were down 29 cents at $80.24 per barrel.