Asian Markets Marginally Higher In Thin Holiday Trade

(RTTNews) - Most Asian stock markets are closed on Friday for the Christmas Day holiday. Among the markets that are open, Japan, China and Taiwan are up with modest gains in thin trading.

The Japanese market is higher in thin Christmas trading, after briefly dipping into negative territory earlier. Many traders are away from the market for the Christmas holidays. Additionally, a stronger yen weighed on exporters' stocks.

In late-morning trades, the benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is adding 73.4 points or 0.39 percent to 18,863.05, after falling to a low of 18,756.17 earlier.

Among the major exporters, Panasonic is declining 0.5 percent, Sharp Corp is losing 3 percent and Canon is down 0.3 percent. Meanwhile, Casio Computer is adding more than 1 percent.

Market heavyweight Fast Retailing is adding almost 1 percent, while SoftBank is down 0.6 percent. Automaker Toyota is declining 0.6 percent.

In the banking space, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial Group are losing more than 1 percent each, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is down 1.4 percent.

Shares of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are down more than 4 percent after the company's subsidiary Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. said Thursday that Japan's first domestically-produced commercial jet, the Mitsubishi Regional Jet, will be delayed by another year. This marks the fourth delay in bringing the aircraft to market.

Trading house Mitsubishi Corp has formed a joint venture with convenience store operator Lawson to sell electricity in Tokyo. The joint venture is capitalized at 250 million yen, with Mitsubishi Corp. Holding an 84 percent stake. Shares of Mitsubishi are down more than 1 percent, while Lawson's shares are edging up 0.1 percent.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank will buy a 50 percent stake in U.S.-based Midwest Railcar, a lessor of freight cars, for a sum of more than 20 billion yen. Midwest is a wholly-owned subsidiary of trading house Marubeni. Shares of Sumitomo Mitsui Trust are declining more than 2 percent and Marubeni are down 0.6 percent.

Toshiba is considering spinning of its mainstay memory chip business to raise funds for capital spending, the Nikkei business daily reported. Shares of Toshiba are lower by 0.7 percent.

Among the other major gainers, Nippon Suisan Kaisha is up almost 13 percent and Kawasaki Kishen Kaisha is rising almost 3 percent. Meanwhile, Kansai Electric Power is losing more than 3 percent.

On the economic front, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said that Japan's consumer prices increased in November, in line with expectations. The overall consumer price index rose 0.3 percent year-over-year in November, as expected by economists.

In a separate report, the statistical office announced that household spending dropped further by 2.9 percent in November. The figure was also matched with consensus estimate. The jobless rate for November came in at 3.3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the lower 120 yen range on Friday, down from the mid 120 yen range at close on Thursday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Shanghai is up 0.2 percent and Taiwan is adding 0.3 percent.

On Wall Street, stocks closed mixed on Thursday in a holiday-shortened trading session, with many traders staying away from their desks before Christmas. Traders largely shrugged off a Labor Department report showing that initial jobless claims fell by more than expected in the week ended December 19th.

While the Nasdaq inched up 2.56 points or 0.1 percent to 5,048.49, the Dow fell 50.44 points or 0.3 percent to 17,552.17 and the S&P 500 dipped 3.30 points or 0.2 percent to 2,060.99.

The major European markets also finished Thursday mixed, with the German markets closed on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index crept up by 0.2 percent, the French CAC 40 Index edged down by 0.2 percent.

Crude-oil futures ended higher Thursday, heading into the Christmas holiday on a win streak that has lifted prices from 6-year lows. WTI crude oil for February delivery added 60 cents, or 1.6 percent, to close at $38.10 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.