Asia down ahead of earnings
(CNN) -- Asian markets closed mainly lower Thursday, dragged down by a fall of almost 2 percent in South Korea.
Hong Kong was also off sharply and Tokyo weakened as investors waited on earnings reports from key Japanese techs later in the day.
The dollar was higher against the Japanese yen.
The Nikkei 225 stock average closed down 0.78 percent at 11,116.84. On Wednesday, the index gained 1.57 percent.
The broader Topix index of all first section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange dipped 0.68 percent to 1121.98. The Topix gained 1.37 percent the day before.
Tech-related stocks were sharply lower, with falls of around 2 percent for Hitachi, Toshiba, Sharp and Matsushita Electric Industrial.
Matsushita's quarterly result was boosted by strong sales of plasma TVs (Full story)
NEC was down 3.2 percent to 680 yen and Fujitsu fell 3.2 percent to 688 yen ahead of its results. (Full story)
Sony, which surprised with a profit in its quarterly earnings Wednesday, finished down 2.3 percent to 3820 yen. (Full story)
Among automakers, Nissan was up 2.24 percent to 1189 yen and Honda put on 3.3 percent to 5320 yen after releasing earnings Wednesday.
Big banks were mainly lower, with a fall of 2.8 percent for SMFG, 3.8 percent for Mizuho and 5.1 percent for UFJ. But MTFG closed up 1 percent to 1.04 million yen.
In Seoul, the Kospi dropped 1.86 percent to 730.61, more than wiping off Wednesday's 0.8 percent gain.
Samsung Electronics was off 2.84 percent to 411,000 won and Hyundai Motor ended down 3.15 percent to 43,000 won. Hyundai reported a profit drop on higher steel prices. (Full story)
In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 closed up 0.07 percent to 3501.4. There were solid gains for resources stocks Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.
But market heavyweight News Corp ended down 1.2 percent to A$11.99.
National Australia Bank extended its recent drift, losing 0.4 percent to A$26.48.
New Zealand's Top 50 pushed to a fresh record high of 2774.69, up 0.2 percent. On Thursday morning the central bank lifted interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point. (Full story)
In Taiwan, the Taiex closed down 0.63 percent to 5349.66.
Singapore's Straits Times index is 0.3 percent lower to 1869.35 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index is off 1.3 percent to 12,157.40.
Wall Street was mixed Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average closing up 0.3 percent to 10,117.07 and the Nasdaq composite index falling 0.6 percent to 1858.26. (Full story)
In currencies, the dollar remained stronger after its climb in New York to its highest level in nearly two months against the yen amid a surge in oil prices.
In Tokyo, the dollar was quoted at 111.74 yen Thursday afternoon, up 0.72 yen from late Wednesday and above the 111.71 yen it bought in New York later that day.
A stronger dollar tends to make Japanese exports more competitive abroad and increases the value of companies' repatriated profits.
