Asian stocks edge down in holiday-hit trade

illustration photo

Tokyo's Nikkei closed flat, edging down 3.56 points to 9,682.21 and Seoul was also flat, giving up 0.72 points to 2,197.82.

Taipei ended 0.13 per cent, or 11.78 points, higher at 8,969.43.

Shanghai was 0.37 per cent lower in the afternoon.

Markets in Hong Kong, Sydney, Jakarta, Singapore, Manila, Mumbai and Wellington were closed for public holidays.

Dealers were taking a breather on Friday after the previous two-day rally that came on the back of strong earnings reports in the United States from corporate giants such as General Electric, Apple, IBM and Intel.

The Dow closed up 0.42 per cent on Thursday, ending the week at its highest level since June 2008.

Those gains followed a big sell-off on Tuesday after Standard & Poor's downgraded its outlook for US sovereign debt, the first such threat to Washington's gold-standard AAA rating.

In Tokyo investors were low key ahead of a slew of earnings reports next week as well as next week's US Federal Reserve policy meeting, which will give a clearer idea on the state of the world's number one economy.

Hiroyuki Fukunaga, CEO at Investrust, told Dow Jones Newswires: "US earnings look good, so the next big focus will be on the monetary policy."

Exporters were hurt by the stronger yen, which harms their competitiveness overseas.

The dollar stood at 81.88 yen in Asian trade, slightly up from 81.85 yen in New York late Thursday while the euro bought $1.4571 and 119.30 yen against $1.4550 and 119.11 yen on Thursday.

However, a senior trader at a major Japanese bank said the greenback may have reached its support level.

"We assume the dollar's downside adjustments over the past several days are mostly completed and quiet trading can be expected in Tokyo because (most) other major financial markets in Asia are closed for the holiday," the trader said.

The US dollar has been heavily sold in the past few days as dealers have developed more risk appetite amid longer-term hopes for the global economy -- thanks to surging equities and strong corporate data -- while also being affected by lingering concerns over US debt.

On the bullion market, gold hit a fresh record high of $1,508.88 an ounce in London on Thursday, a day after topping $1,500 for the first time. It closed at $1,504.00 Gold markets in Hong Kong were closed for the Easter break.