Asian Shares Failed To Rise On Negative Sentiment

Tokyo, Japan (AHN) - Asian markets continue to perform weaker as the shares tumbled for the fight straight trading session on Friday on rising raw material costs and declining earnings.

Oil futures retreated and a light sweet crude-futures barrel for October delivery declined by $1.79 to $106.10 a barrel mark in Singapore's electronic trading on Friday.

On Thursday, crude for October delivery had dropped to five-month low at $107.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In raw materials, gold futures for December delivery, which dropped by $5.00 to close at $803.20 an ounce on the NYMEX overnight, declined by $4.70 to $798.50 an ounce in electronic trading on Friday.

In currency trading, the yen strengthened and changed hands at 105.69 yen per U.S. dollar during early hours in Asia on Friday, but later weakened at to 106.23 yen per U.S. dollar late afternoon.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 average closed lower by 345.43 points or 2.75 percent at 12,212.23 points, and the broader Topix index closed 2.6 percent lower at 1,170.84 points.

Mizuho Financial declined by 6.3 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui slipped by 4.7 percent.

Among automakers, shares of Toyota Motor Corp., which gets more than a third of its sales in the region, slipped by 2.5 percent and Mazda Motor Corp. plunged by 6.9 percent.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng closed lower by 456.20 points or 2.24 percent at 19,933.28 points and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, also finished by 2.1 percent lower at 10,695.86 points.

Shares of HSBC Holdings PLC, which got 26 percent of its 2007 revenue in North America, slipped by 3.0 percent in Hong Kong.

In the housing market, shares of Sun Hung Kai Properties dropped by 6.1 percent and Cheung Kong moved down by 5.7 percent

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 index finished 2.1 percent lower at 4,877.10, points in Sydney led by resources producing companies of the country.

In the mining sector, shares of BHP Billiton, the world's biggest miner, dropped by 2.2 percent. Santos Ltd., Australia's third-biggest oil and gas producer, retreated 1 percent on lowering crude prices.

China's Shanghai composite index closed to its lowest level since December by falling 3.3 percent to 2,202.45 points as the shares faltered on Friday.

Elsewhere, South Korea's Kospi closed down 1.6 percent to 1,404.38 points in Seoul and New Zealand's NZX 50 index closed down by 0.4 percent to 3,336.18 points on Friday