Asian markets ended lower Thursday with trading volumes remaining thin as investors showed caution ahead of an Italian debt auction, heading into the New Year weekend.
The Nikkei closed down 0.3%. The Shanghai Composite bucked the trend, up a marginal 0.2% while the Hang Seng gave up 0.7%. The Sensex fell 1.2% while the S&P/ASX All Ordinaries declined 0.5%.
Exporters were pressured in Tokyo after the euro fell to a ten-year low against the Japanese yen.
Stocks on the Move
Elpida Memory ended down 5.1% on a report that the company was seeking an extension for repaying 30 billion yen of government loans.
In exporters, camera-maker Canon shed 0.4% and Sharp Corp. was 3.2% lower. Index heavyweight Sony reversed direction and ended up 0.1%.
Chinese property shares were mostly lower in Hong Kong with Hang Lung Properties down 1.1% while China Overseas Land & Investment fell 4.8%. China Resources Land retreated 2.7%.
In India, the Sensex extended its losses in the last half-hour of trade, pulled down by heavyweights RIL and L&T.
A weak rupee pressured shares, offsetting any positive sentiment from official data that showed food inflation falling sharply to a six-year low of 0.42% in the week ended December 17 as prices of essential items like vegetables, onion, potato and wheat declined.
Inflation in the overall primary articles category stood at 2.70% for the same period as against 3.78% in the previous week.
Index leader BHP Billiton sank 0.2% in Sydney while fellow miner Rio Tinto was poorer by 0.4%.
BHP Billiton bought several exploration tenements near its Olympic Dam mine in South Australia from Archer Exploration for $3 million.
Gold miner Newcrest Mining fell 3% after a drop in overnight prices of the yellow metal. OZ Minerals dropped 2.9% after news of a train derailment that caused losses of about US$8 million in copper concentrate.
Mixed reports of sales in the holiday season continued to trip up retail stocks.
A late turnaround in financials helped prevent further losses to the market as CBA, NAB and Westpac all ended higher. ANZ was the only major bank to fall, down 0.4%.