Oil prices pushed higher, as stock markets sluggish in Asia

HONG KONG: Oil prices stayed high in Asia on Thursday as a Japanese minister fretted about the effects of Middle East unrest, while stock markets were mostly underwhelmed by a strong session on Wall Street.

Japan's economy minister voiced disquiet about crude supplies to his energy-poor country after violent clashes from Bahrain to Libya, with tensions also heightened by Iran's efforts 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.

With crude posting strong gains recently, dealers took an opportunity to take some profits, but prices remained high due to tensions in the Middle East and North Africa.

Brent North Sea crude for April delivery edged down five cents to $102.54 a barrel and New York's main contract, light sweet crude for March, fell 19 cents to $86.17.

Asian stock markets were mixed.

Tokyo closed flat, edging up 6.16 points to 10,842.80, while Sydney was also virtually unchanged, ending down 1.7 points at 4,936.7.

Shanghai's Composite index was down 0.88 percent in the afternoon but Hong Kong climbed 1.04 percent by the break, buoyed by shares in banking giant HSBC.

Seoul rose 1.82 percent, or 35.92 points, to 2,013.14,

Tokyo took a breather as a strong yen muted sentiment towards Japanese 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, enthusiasm sagged 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 percent, while the broader S&P 500 rose 0.31 percent and the tech-oriented Nasdaq Composite gained 0.21 percent.

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:

Taipei rose 1.84 percent, or 159.96 points, to 8,843.84.

Hon Hai rose 1.3 percent to Tw$116.5, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company was 0.69 percent higher at Tw$73.0.

Manila fell 0.39 percent, 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 percent to 28.30 pesos.

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

Wellington rose 0.50 percent, or 17.04 points, to 3,412.74.

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

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