Asia report: Markets mostly lower as Samsung pulls Note 7 plug

Asian markets ended mostly lower on Wednesday, as Samsung Electronics confirmed it will permanently put the kibosh on the Galaxy Note 7, while oil prices climbed.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.09% to finish at 16,840, with the yen last 0.06% weaker at JPY 103.57 per $1.

Core machinery orders were down 2.2% over last month, fresh data from Tokyo showed, narrower than consensus forecasts for a 5.5% decline.

Markets on the mainland were mixed, with the Shanghai Composite down 0.2% at 3,059.13, and the Shenzhen Composite adding 0.17% to 2,047.12.

South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.09% by the close, to 2,033.75, in a session in which it bobbed above and below the line.

Shares in Samsung Electronics dropped a relatively light 0.65%, paring back from losses of more than 3% earlier in the session, and investors reacted to the impact of the Note 7 smartphone fiasco on the technology giant.

Major South Korean telcos were mixed, with the loss of the flagship phablet likely to have some sort of impact on them - KT added 1.11%, LG Uplus lost 1.3% and SK Telecom lost 0.23%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index finished down 0.6% to 23,407.05.

Crude prices were higher during Asian trading, and continued to rise as the region went to bed, with Brent crude last up 0.66% at $52.76 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate adding 0.33% to $50.96.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.09% to 5,474.60, with the energy and materials subindexes dragging the benchmark down by 0.93% and 1.06% respectively.

On the oil front, Oil Search was down 1.96% while Santos shed 2.54%, despite the higher crude prices.

And a day after a fresh survey suggested business confidence was rising in the southern continent, the Melbourne Institute-Westpac Bank survey showed a 1.1% rise in consumer sentiment month-on-month.

New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 fell 0.2% to 7,107.45, led lower by accounting software provider Xero, down 2.8%, and retirement property developer Summerset Group Holdings, off 2.4%.

The down under dollars were both stronger against the greenback, with the dollarydoo 0.58% stronger at AUD 1.3188 per $1 and the Kiwi ahead 0.23% at NZD 1.4140.