Asia drifts to lower close
(CNN) -- Asian stocks drifted to a lower close Friday as Wall Street's gains failed to lift a listless market.
Japanese techs finished mainly in the red, but most falls were muted. Banks also weakened.
The dollar was up against the Japanese yen.
The Nikkei 225 stock average traded in a narrow range to finish the day down 0.87 percent to 11,187.33. On Thursday, the benchmark index fell 1.30 percent.
The broader Topix index of all first section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange lost 0.79 percent to 1135.29. The Topix dropped 0.80 percent on Thursday.
Japanese big banks were among the decliners. Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group headed the banking falls, down 3.6 percent to 1.05 million yen.
SMFG was 2.7 percent lower to 713,000 yen, Mizuho was off 1.1 percent to 435,000 yen and UFJ closed 1.5 percent in the red at 446,000 yen.
Some automakers were also weaker, with a fall of 1.5 percent for Honda Motor and 0.5 percent for Toyota Motor. But Nissan rose 0.7 percent to 1168 yen.
Mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo, which posted solid gains earlier in the week, finished down 1.6 percent to 184,000 yen.
Among tech-related stocks, Toshiba was a rare gainer, up 0.25 percent to 402 yen. Tokyo Electron dropped 2 percent.
In Seoul, the Kospi closed down 0.69 percent to 737.51, with Samsung Electronics off about half a percent to 419,500 won. SK Telecom had one of the heaviest falls, down almost 4 percent to 158,000 won.
Big exporter Hyundai Motor closed 0.56 percent lower to 44,000 won.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 finished down 0.37 percent to 3485.2
The market's biggest stock, media group News Corp, was up 0.9 percent to A$12.15. But resources leader BHP Billiton ended about 0.6 percent lower to A$12.67 and big bank NAB continued to fade, down another 1 percent to A$26.90.
New Zealand's Top 50, which hit a record high earlier in the week, slipped 0.58 percent to 2741.54. Telecom NZ was off almost 2 percent to NZ$6.01.
In Taiwan, the Taiex finished down 0.26 percent to 5373.85 after being marginally in the black earlier in the day. Chip foundry TSMC lost 1.1 percent to T$42.80.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index is slightly higher, up 0.16 percent to 12,342.15 in afternoon trade. HSBC is steady at HK$116.00.
Singapore's Straits Times index is down 0.42 percent to 1855.15 heading towards the close.
On Wall Street Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average ended up 4.20 points, or 0.04 percent, at 10,050.33. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 14.69 points, or 0.8 percent, to 1,889.06. (Full story)
The dollar was quoted at 109.84 yen in Tokyo late Friday afternoon, up 0.18 yen from late Thursday in Tokyo and slightly above the 109.74 it bought in New York later that day.
