Tokyo, Seoul back in the red
(CNN) -- Asian stocks closed mainly lower Thursday, with Japan and South Korea down sharply after coming back from holidays this week.
Seoul posted the region's biggest fall, with the Kospi off more than 3.4 percent on concerns about chipmakers.
Samsung Electronics dropped almost 5 percent and Hynix Semiconductor plunged 7.2 percent.
In Tokyo, where investors returned from a three-day trading holiday, the Nikkei 225 closed 1.62 percent lower to 11,571.34.
The broader Topix was down 1.78 percent to 1165.24.
But Taiwan recovered slightly from Wednesday's tech rout, when the Taiex plunged 5.4 percent. The index finished up 0.95 percent.
Hong Kong is about 1.2 percent higher.
Australia and New Zealand both ended about a quarter of a percent lower. Singapore is down about 0.4 percent.
In Tokyo the dollar traded at 109.10 late in the day. There was a weak showing on the equities market as investors got their first chance to react to the decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve to leave rates on hold. (Full story)
Carmakers were all in the red, with Toyota down 1.75 percent to 3920 yen and Honda off about 1 percent. Mitsubishi Motors ended 5.1 percent lower to 259 yen.
Among tech-related stocks, there were falls of 3.6 percent for Fujitsu and 3.3 percent for NEC. Hitachi, Toshiba and Sharp were down 1 percent or more. Sony closed 1.4 percent lower at 4210 yen.
Tokyo Electron was down 3.4 percent to 6490 yen. Mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo eased 0.9 percent to 217,000 yen.
Among big banks, Mizuho tumbled 4.8 percent to 497,000 yen and SMFG was off 2.5 percent to 813,000 yen. UFJ lost 5.3 percent and MTFG closed about 3.7 percent lower.
In Seoul, the Kospi ended down 3.44 percent to 837.68.
Market heavyweight Samsung Electronics closed at 528,000 won and LG Electronics was off 3.5 percent to 69,600 won. Hynix Semiconductor ended deep in the red, down 7.2 percent to 12,250 won.
Big bank Kookmin was 4 percent lower to 42,800 won.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 closed 0.24 percent lower to 3399.4.
There were solid gains for News Corp and Qantas, but big miners finished in the red. BHP was off 1.5 percent to A$11.68 and Rio Tinto was down 0.88 percent to A$32.81.
Westpac Bank, which announced a record first-half result, ended down 2.86 percent to A$17.41. Other banks were also in the red. (Full story)
In Singapore, the Straits Times index is down 0.5 percent to 1869.59 heading toward the close. Leading bank DBS Group is up 2 percent to S$14.80.
SingTel is down 1.2 percent to S$2.41 after posting a record full-year profit. (Full story)
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index is up 0.8 percent to 12,042.14. Hutchison Whampoa and China Mobile are recovering from Wednesday's sharp falls.
HSBC is up 1.3 percent to HK$115.50.
In Taiwan, the Taiex closed 0.95 percent ahead to 5909.79. Chip foundry TSMC was up 0.9 percent to T$55.50 and UMC rose 0.7 percent to T$28.60.
On Wall Street Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average finished flat, down just 0.06 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq put on 0.35 percent to 1957.26. (Full story)
