Asian Shares Fall, Retailers Weigh on Sydney

Asian markets were lower on Friday, with Australian retailers weighing on Sydney and the Nikkei dropped after the yen strengthened.

The region moved lower after a broadly negative session on Wall Street, at the end of a week that has been dominated by U.S. economic data   in particular, the disappointing labor report released last Friday and strong retail numbers that were released earlier in the week.

The dollar stabilized against the yen during Asian trade after a 0.2% fall on Thursday -- last at Yen104.35.

As a result, the Nikkei fell 0.3%, putting it down 1.3% for the week so far.

In other markets, South Korea's Kospi was flat and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was 0.2% lower.

Australian retailers were in focus on Friday, after Super Retail Group plunged 15% after warning that weak margins on its leisure division will hurt first-half net profit. The news sparked selling across the retail space, with Harvey Norman Holdings losing 2%, JB Hi-Fi falling 3.1% and David Jones 3% lower.

Large miners in Australia however extended their gains on the strong U.S. economic data earlier in the week. Rio Tinto added 1.3% and BHP Billiton climbed 2.5% higher, with the stocks gaining 4.4% and 3.5% respectively so far this week.

Investors were waiting for a batch of Chinese economic data on Monday, in particular fourth-quarter gross domestic product data. The world's second-largest economy likely grew by 7.6% on year, according to the median forecast of 13 economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal--slightly lower than 7.8% in the third quarter. Other numbers scheduled for Monday include industrial output and retail sales.

Write to Daniel Inman at [e-mail]

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