Asia succumbs to oil pressure
(CNN) -- Asian stocks closed broadly lower Friday in response to higher oil prices, the same worry that earlier sent Wall Street tumbling.
South Korea had the biggest fall, down 1.26 percent, while Japan finished down almost 1 percent.
New Zealand, which closed at a record high Thursday, fell 1.1 percent.
There were smaller falls in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.
The dollar was up against the Japanese yen late in the Asian day.
The Nikkei 225 stock average finished Friday down 0.8 percent to 10,972.57. On Thursday the index had put on 0.46 percent.
The broader Topix index of all first section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was down 0.87 percent to 1107.12. The Topix rose 0.19 percent the day before.
Tokyo stocks were lower as wary investors weighed rising oil prices and U.S. stock falls. Techs, carmakers and banks were all down.
Sharp, Kyocera and Matsushita Electric posted falls of about 2 percent, and other big exporters such as Sony and Canon were down about 1 percent.
Toshiba, Hitachi, NEC and Fujitsu were also more than 1 percent lower.
Among automakers, Honda ended down 2 percent and Toyota was off 2.5 percent to 4160 yen. NTT DoCoMo, another market heavyweight, was 1 percent lower to 190,000 yen.
Big banks were weaker, with falls of around 2 percent each for Mizuho and UFJ. SMFG lost 3.3 percent and MTFG closed down 0.6 percent to 934,000 yen.
UFJ posted a first-quarter loss. (Full story)
In South Korea, the Kospi finished down 1.26 percent to 733.95. Samsung Electronics eased 0.8 percent to 419,500 won. Hyundai Motor dropped 3.6 percent to 45,000 won.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 ended down 0.23 percent to 3530.6. News Corp fell again, losing 2 percent to A$11.48 on nervousness about its proposed relocation to the United States. (Full story)
AXA Asia Pacific jumped 19 percent to A$3.90 after parent AXA unveiled a possible $2.2 billion buyout of minority shareholders. (Full story)
New Zealand's Top 50 fell 1.09 percent to 2764.72 after setting a record high Thursday. Telecom NZ was down 1.9 percent to NZ$6.07.
In Taiwan, the Taiex was off 0.52 percent to 5399.16. Chipmakers TSMC and UMC each fell more than 2 percent.
In Singapore the Straits Times index is 0.7 percent lower to 1921.97 heading towards the close.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index is down 0.35 percent to 12,448.75 near the close.
Oil prices climbed to new highs Thursday in U.S. markets, with a barrel of light crude closing at a record-high $44.41, up $1.58. That sent U.S. stocks plummeting. Later, oil futures touched $44.73 in after-hours trading. (Full story)
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 163.48, or 1.6 percent, to 9,963.03, closing below the 10,000 mark for the third time in the last 10 sessions. The Nasdaq composite index lost 33.43, or 1.8 percent, to 1,821.63. (Full story)
The dollar is at 111.71 yen in Tokyo late Friday, the same level it was in New York Thursday.
