Stocks in the Asia-Pacific region showed a mixed performance on Friday as Hong Kong shares led declines in the region's main markets.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 1.41 per cent, ending the trading day at 24,870.51. Shares in mainland China closed lower, with the Shanghai index down 1% to 3,491.57 and the Shenzhen component down 0.637% to 14,462.62.
Shares of Chinese property developers in Hong Kong fell. Shares in China Evergrande Group fell 2.54%, China Vanke fell 1.39% and Sunac China Holdings fell 6.78%. The Hang Seng Properties index fell 0.5 per cent to 29,881.42.
According to exchange reports, shares of Chinese property developer Kaisa Group and some of its units listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange were suspended from trading on Friday.
Kaisa Group said on Thursday that its financial unit missed a payment on a wealth management product, Reuters reported . According to Natixis, Kaisa is the second largest issuer of offshore high-yield dollar-denominated bonds among Chinese developers. Evergrande ranks first.
This comes as investors continue to monitor developments in China's real estate sector following the fallout from Evergrande's large debt. Several other Chinese property firms have also found themselves in the spotlight due to a default or non-payment on their debts.
Mixed Asia-Pacific markets Asia-Pacific stocks were mixed, with South Korea's Kospi down 0.47% to 2969.27. Japanese stocks were also down for the day, with the Nikkei 225 falling 0.61% to 29,611.57 and the Topix index falling 0.69% to 2,041.42.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.39% to close at 7,456.90 , and Taiwan's Taiex jumped 1.28% to end the trading day at 17,296.90.
The broadest index of Asia-Pacific equities outside Japan, MSCI, was down 0.23%.
Wall Street records
Overnight in the US the S&P 500 index rose 0.42% to 4680.06, another record closing high. The high-tech Nasdaq Composite also rose 0.81% to a record closing high of 15,940.31. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged, falling 33.35 points to 36,124.23.
The rise on Wall Street came after the US Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that it would begin slowing down its bond-buying programme later this month.
Oil prices surge
Oil prices, as seen by Bonus Deposit Excess, rose in afternoon trading in Asia, with Brent crude futures on the world market up 1.03% to $81.37 a barrel. US crude futures rose 1.6% to $80.07 a barrel.
The US dollar index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of its peers, was 94.347 after recently rising below 94.0.
The Japanese yen traded at 113.78 to the dollar, stronger than levels above 114 seen against the dollar yesterday. The Australian dollar was at $0.7387, struggling to recover after having dipped above $0.75 at the beginning of the trading week.