Oil pushes higher, stock markets sluggish in Asia

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Japan's economy minister voiced disquiet about crude supplies to his energy-poor country after violent clashes in Middle Eastern countries from Bahrain to Libya, with tensions also heightened following by Iran's decision to send naval ships into the Mediterranean.

"Stability in the Middle East has important implications for Japan because the region is a big supplier of crude, which is a lifeline for our economy," economy minister Kaoru Yosano said at a regular press conference.

Brent North Sea crude for April delivery rose two cents to $102.61 in Asian trade, while New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, gained a cent to $86.37.

Asian stock markets were having a mixed day.

Tokyo was flat and Shanghai's Composite index was down 0.89 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 1.04 per cent however, buoyed by shares in banking giant HSBC.

Sydney ended flat, edging down 1.7 points to 4,936.7.

Tokyo took a breather as a strong yen muted sentiment towards the country's exporters, after four straight sessions of gains for the Nikkei.

However Masayoshi Yano, a senior market analyst at Meiwa Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires: "The overall trend continues to be foreign investor buying" of Japan stocks.

In Sydney, banking stocks pulled back after pushing higher on a series of strong corporate results.

In Shanghai, sentiment was muted as the state-run China Securities Journal cited several unnamed analysts as saying the central bank may hike the reserve requirement ratio for banks in a further effort to cool the economy.

"Investors are inclined to stay on the sidelines as they fret over the potential for more tightening over the weekend, so some stocks, like cement producers, are succumbing to profit-taking after recent sharp rises," Zhang Gang, an analyst at Central China Securities, said.

However Hong Kong was lifted by upbeat expectations for HSBC's full-year results, which are due on February 28. The bank has risen more than seven percent so far this month.

On Wall Street markets came close to two-year highs after a report by the Philadelphia branch of the Federal Reserve indicated a surge in industrial activity in that region to a seven-year high.

That helped offset data showing a rise in new weekly jobless claims in the United States and a surge in consumer prices.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.24 per cent, while the broader S&P 500 rose 0.31 per cent and the tech-oriented Nasdaq Composite gained 0.21 per cent.

On Asian currency markets the dollar was at 83.34 yen in early trade, slightly up from 83.30 in New York Thursday. The euro fetched $1.3598, just off its $1.3605 level in New York.

The euro was also flat at 113.32 yen.

Gold opened at $1,383.50-$1,384.50 an ounce in Hong Kong, up from Thursday's close of $1,379.00-$1,380.00.

In other markets:

-- Manila fell 0.39 per cent, or 15.14 points, to 3,851.24.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. was unchanged at 2,300 pesos while Aboitiz Power Corp. slipped 2.07 per cent to 28.30 pesos.

Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. was down 0.5 per cent at 59.85 pesos.

-- Wellington rose 0.50 per cent, or 17.04 points, to 3,412.74.

Contact Energy rose 0.5 per cent to NZ$6.25, infrastructure company Vector fell 1.2 per cent to NZ$2.51 and Auckland International Airport rose 0.9 per cent to NZ$2.26, ahead of quarterly results from all three companies.

Sky Television rose 3.1 per cent to NZ$5.58 after it said net profit in the six months to December 31 was 19 per cent up on a year earlier.