HONG KONG, Jan 30: Markets in Asia were mixed on Friday as dealers looked to a fall on Wall Street and a woeful set of economic data out of Japan that highlighted the depth of the world economic crisis.

Tokyo shares received a hammering, falling 3.12 per cent after the government revealed industrial output, consumer spending and employment were all sharply down.

December’s 9.6 per cent drop in industrial output from the previous month was the steepest such decline on record, while unemployment jumped to 4.4 per cent, the country’s highest rate in three years.

TOKYO: Down 3.12 per cent. The Tokyo Stock Exchange’s benchmark Nikkei index lost 257.19 points to end at 7,994.05. The broader Topix index of all first-section shares slipped 24.44 points, or 2.99 per cent, to 794.03.

Profit warnings from Nintendo and Toshiba also triggered selling.

Nintendo slid 12 per cent to 28,300 yen after the video game titan cut its annual net profit forecast by a third as a strong yen offsets robust sales of the Wii and DS consoles.

HONG KONG: Up 0.9 per cent. The Hang Seng Index closed up 123.78 points at 13,278.21 after falling to an intraday low of 12,899.57. Turnover was 44.10 billion Hong Kong dollars (5.65 billion US).

Shares in mainland companies, including insurers, were boosted on hopes that Beijing may launch more economic stimulus measures after the Lunar New Year holiday.

SYDNEY: Up 0.4 per cent. The S&P/ASX 200 was 14.5 points higher at 3,540.7, while the broader All Ordinaries gained 16.8 points to 3,478.1.

Preliminary national turnover was 1.3 billion shares worth 4.6 billion Australian dollars (three billion US).

Qantas added 1.2 per cent to 2.45 while telco Telstra inched up 0.3 per cent to 3.79.

SINGAPORE: Down 1.15 per cent. The blue-chip Straits Times Index dropped 20.25 points to 1,746.47 on volume of 825 million shares worth 962 million Singapore dollars (638 million US).

Bank shares fell, with DBS closing 28 cents lower at 8.82, United Overseas Bank shedding 20 cents to 11.88 and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp easing a cent to 5.15.

KUALA LUMPUR: Up 0.2 per cent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) added 1.29 points to close at 884.45.

Among advancing stocks, IOI rose 2.1 per cent to 3.92 ringgit and MMC gained 5.6 per cent to 1.33, while Tenaga lost 1.7 per cent to 5.90.

JAKARTA: Up 0.6 per cent. The Jakarta Composite Index gained 8.01 points to 1,332.66 in thin trade.

Bank Rakyat Indonesia rose 0.6 percent to 4,550 rupiah and coal miner Bukit Asam jumped 2.1 per cent to 7,400.

Coal miner Bumi Resources gained 4.1 per cent to 520.

WELLINGTON: Up 0.15 per cent. The benchmark NZX-50 index gained 4.03 points to close at 2,774.14 on turnover worth 129.7 million dollars (66.0 million US).

Market leader Telecom was unchanged at $2.66 .

Shares were underpinned by strong demand after New Zealand’s central bank cut the official interest rate by 1.5 percentage points to 3.5 per cent on Thursday.

MUMBAI: Indian shares rose 2.04 per cent on Friday on firm European market trends and select overseas fund buying, dealers said.—AFP