Asia report: Markets mixed on Macau gambling, Park impeachment

Markets in Asia finished mixed on Friday, with South Korea slipping just before Seoul’s parliament elected to impeach President Park Geun-hye over her wide-ranging influence scandal late in the afternoon.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 was up 1.23% at 18,996.37, its fourth session of gains on the trot, while the broader Topix was 0.84% higher at 1,525.36.

The yen was relatively weaker against the greenback, and was last 0.6% behind at JPY 114.72 per $1.

Markets on the mainland were mixed, with the Shanghai Composite up 0.52% at 3,232.06 and the Shenzhen Composite down 0.35% at 2,070.00.

South Korea’s Kospi finished down 0.31% at 2,024.69, with the markets closing just before parliament voted on President Park’s impeachment.

The full effect of the impeachment won’t be reflected by the domestic markets until Monday.

“A quick resolution and introduction of new leadership offers South Korea the best opportunity to move on from this political crisis and renew focus on the key issue facing the country - the urgent need to revamp the now stagnating chaebol-dominated economic model,” noted FTI Consulting’s Liam Martin earlier in the week.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 0.56%, led lower by gambling shares amid media reports of Beijing preparing to crack down on the Macau leisure industry, to put the kibosh on capital outflows.

The South China Morning Post said a new 5,000 pataca withdrawal limit was going to be enforced on China UnionPay cardholders in the autonomous region, down from the current 10,000 pataca limit.

It is expected to come into force on Saturday, and followed a month in which 10 billion Macanese patacas were withdrawn from UnionPay cards in a single month.

Galaxy Entertainment was down 7.2%, Melco International Development was off 9.74%, Sands China lost 8.13%, SJM Holdings slid 6.65% and Wynn Macau stumbled 7.52%.

Oil prices were higher, after they finished in the green during US hours ahead of another meeting of oil producers in Vienna over the weekend.

OPEC secretary-general Abdalla El-Badri was quoted in reports as saying that non-OPEC producers needed to complement the cartel’s agreed 1.2 million barrel daily cut with their own 600,000 barrel daily cut.

Brent crude was last up 0.57% at $54.20 per barrel, and West Texas Intermediate jumped 0.96% to $51.33.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.32% to finish at 5,560.62, with the hefty financials subindex notching up a 0.98% gain and energy growing 1.09%.

In New Zealand, the S&P/NZX 50 finished 0.3% to finish at 6,893.30, led lower by former monopoly telco Spark, which lost 2.8%.

Both of the down under dollars were stronger, with the Aussie last ahead 0.37% at AUD 1.3349 against the greenback, and the Kiwi managing a 0.1% gain to NZD 1.3926 per $1.