Asia: Markets fluctuate as oil prices tumble
Asian markets fluctuated on Friday, with Hong Kong stocks falling while Japanese stocks recovered some ground.
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The Nikkei 225 rose 211 points to 17,460, while the Hang Seng shed 16.83 points to 23,987.45. The Shangai and Sensex 30 index, meanwhile, rose to 2,682.84 points and 28,693.99 respectively.
Hong Kong stocks fell for a second consecutive day as energy shares lost ground as the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries decided against cutting output, sending the price of oil tumbling to a four-year low.
Cnooc slid 5.7% 5.7%, while PetroChina, the country’s largest oil producer, lost 4% and Sinopec fell 3%. Airline stocks rose on declining oil prices, with Air China rising 5.4%, while China Eastern Airline and Cathay Pacific Airways leapt 5.2% and 6.4% respectively.
Meanwhile, in Japan, markets were boosted by some positive economic data. The country’s sales for October rose 1.4% year-on-year, while industrial production advanced 0.2% from the previous month, beating analysts’ expectations.
According to analyst Joshua Mahony from Alpari UK, the data has given prime minister Shinzo Abe "more to worry about ahead of the snap election, due next month".
He said: "Unfortunately for Abe, his decision [to hold the election] couldn’t have come at a worse time, with Japan falling into recession a week later and now moving ever further away from his 2% target for CPI."
Car makers rallied on Friday, with Toyota Motor rising 1.4%, while Honda Motor advanced 0.9% and Mazda Motor gained 0.7%.
Toshiba Corporation rose 1.4% and Nintendo advanced 1.3%, while Inpex Corporation and Japan Petroleum Exploration suffered from a drop in the price of oil and fell 5.2% and 2.9% respectively.
In Australia the ASX 200 dropped 87.92 points to 5,313.00, as the country’s energy stocks bore the brunt of tumbling oil prices.
Both the yen and the Australian dollar fell against the US dollar, losing 0.3% and 0.08% respectively.