HONG KONG: Asian markets mostly fell on Friday as a meeting between the eurozone's biggest three economies highlighted their difference on finding a solution to the region's debt crisis.
Traders remained nervous at the end of a week that saw fears over Europe deepen as the yields on Italian and Spanish bonds sat dangerously high and even Germany -- the bloc's pillar -- failed to sell all its bonds at auction.
Tokyo was 0.10 percent up by the break, Hong Kong fell 0.81 percent, Sydney was 1.23 percent lower, Seoul shed 0.93 percent and Shanghai was flat.
The leaders of Germany, France and Italy on Thursday met to discuss plans to address the two-year-old debt crisis in a bid to sooth markets, which have been hammered over fears of a collapse of the union and another global downturn.
Ahead of the talks French President Nicolas Sarkozy had called for the European Central Bank to act as a lender of last resort for the eurozone and issue bonds, a move strongly rejected by Berlin.
After the talks Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italy's new Prime Minister Mario Monti said they would move to reform EU governing treaties but insisted there would be no wider role for the ECB.
"It is difficult to reconcile the interests of individual nations," Yoshihiro Okumura, general manager at Chibagin Asset Management, told Dow Jones Newswires.
"It will likely take a while to get that done. Markets can be destabilised at every major redemption of sovereign bonds," he said.
The discord between the eurozone's leading powers weighed on sentiment and pushed the euro lower in London, hitting a six week low of $1.3316. In early Tokyo trade the unit was only slightly higher at $1.3329.
The euro also bought 103.15 yen, compared with 102.87 yen in London late Thursday. The dollar edged up to 77.24 yen from 77.11.
New York markets were closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving.
"Disappointment that officials continue to tinker with the trivial rather than consider the bold pushed risk appetites lower and increased the downside risks to the outlook for the European sovereign-debt crisis," said Besa Deda, Chief Economist at St. George Economics.
In Tokyo Olympus, which saw three-quarters of its stock disappear amid an accounting scandal, soared 18 percent Friday on hopes for a change of management as ousted CEO Michael Woodford addresses the board.
Investors are also buying into the camera maker on confidence it will report its earnings by a December deadline and avoid being delisted.
On oil markets New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in January gained 30 cents to $96.47 a barrel.
Brent North Sea crude for January delivery slipped 40 cents to $107.38.
Gold was trading at $1,694.10 an ounce by 0300 GMT, from $1,698.30 late Thursday.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.