Asia report: Most markets lower amid dollar strength

Markets in Asia finished in the red on Thursday, with strength in the dollar suppressing investor enthusiasm in the region.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 was down 0.25% at 20,029.26, as the yen began to gain on the dollar late in the day, last advancing 0.13% to JPY 110.58.

Technology conglomerate Toshiba said in a statement that its valuable memory division would be investing in production equipment on its own, after talks with manufacturing joint venture partner SanDisk fell through.

Toshiba also said it would increase the output ratio of its 3D flash memory to 90% of capacity next year.

Its shares finished down 0.77%.

On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite lost 0.35% to 3,273.41, and the smaller, technology-heavy Shenzhen Composite was 0.01% below the line at 1,869.21.

The unofficial Caixin services PMI was released on Thursday, showing a slight slowdown in service sector growth in July, with the reading coming in at 51.5 compared to 51.6 in June

July’s reading was also in line with April, which itself was the lowest reading since May last year.

South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.68% to 2,386.85, while the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong was 0.28% lower at 27,531.01.

Standard Chartered shares in Hong Kong were down 8.07%, after the emerging markets-focussed bank said its first half profit before tax was up 93%.

The bank did also tell traders in its release after the close on Wednesday that it would not start paying dividends.

Early in the session, markets were digesting the ADP number for July, released overnight in the US.

The private sector reportedly added 178,000 jobs to the US economy during the month, missing analyst expectations for 185,000 new jobs.

Investors were now keenly awaiting the nonfarm payroll figures, due at the end of this week.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was 0.16% softer at 5,735.12, with the materials and telecoms subindexes leading the charge lower, while the weighty financials sector was off 0.39%.

Sydney shares in Rio Tinto were off 2.49%, even after the major miner reported a more-than-doubling in first-half profit on Wednesday as well as a massive share buyback.

New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 was the odd one out, as it rose 0.07% to hit a new record high of 7,753.75.

It was led higher by shipping firm Freightways, which was ahead 2.1%.

Both of the down under dollars were weaker against the greenback, with the Aussie last off 0.46% at AUD 1.2609 and the Kiwi retreating 0.26% to NZD 1.3495.