Asia: Mixed on China and US data

HONG KONG: Asian markets were mixed yesterday after another record-breaking performance on Wall Street while Shanghai dipped as disappointing economic data fuelled concerns about China's economy.

The dollar got a boost from better-than-forecast US jobs figures, hitting multi-year highs against the yen.

Tokyo rose 0.53 per cent, or 65.43 points, to 12,349.05, while Sydney added 0.46 per cent, or 23.5 points, to 5,146.9 - its highest close since September 2008.

Seoul eased 0.13 per cent, losing 2.66 points to close at 2,003.35, while Shanghai lost 0.35 per cent, or 8.02 points, to end at 2,310.59.

The strong performance in the US was slightly overshadowed by results from Beijing on Saturday that showed inflation at a 10-month high of 3.2 per cent in February while growth in industrial output and retail sales slowed.

In other markets:

* Taipei rose 0.29 per cent, or 23.58 points, to 8,038.72. Fubon added 2.33 per cent to T$44.0, while MediaTek was 0.57 per cent higher at T$350.0.

* Manila slipped 0.29 per cent, or 19.82 points, to 6,813.95. SM Investments Corp fell 0.27 per cent to 1,097 pesos, while PLDT slipped 0.8 per cent to 2,970 pesos.

* Jakarta ended down 20.18 points, or 0.41 per cent, at 4,854.31. Astra International dropped 3.01 per cent to 8,050 rupiah and Timah slipped 2.67 per cent to 1,460.

* Bangkok added 0.68 per cent or 10.73 points to 1,577.65. Banpu dropped 0.51 per cent to 390 baht and PTT rose 2.39 percent to 343 baht.

* Mumbai was down 0.19 per cent or 37.02 points to 19,646.21 points. Tata Steel closed down 0.77 per cent at 301.40 rupees while Infosys was down 0.82 per cent at 2,945.75 rupees. AFP