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

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.