Asian markets struggled to finish on a positive note last Friday following the agreement of major oil producers on prolonging the production cuts for nine months, instead of the proposed six months, at an OPEC meeting last Thursday.
Japanese benchmark Nikkei 225 fell as much as 0.35 percent on the day. The Australian ASX 200 dropped by 0.63 percent, with materials and energy sub-indexes on the negative territory. Across the Korean Strait, the Kospi index was 0.62 percent higher on the session; it settled at an all-time high and has been gaining for six straight sessions.
In Japan, conglomerate Toshiba reported Broadcom, Hon Hai Precision and KKR had given their offers for its memory chip unit. According to Nikkei’s report, Toshiba said it had accepted bids that were greater than 2 trillion yen (17.9 billion in USD). The company declined by 0.58 percent in shares. Also in the country, Nobuyoshi Miura upgraded his call on Yakult’s shares to a “Buy”. The beverage manufacturer added 1.44 percent in shares.
Chinese markets also struggled on the day as the Shenzhen Composite inched lower by 0.23 percent. However Shanghai Composite edged slightly up by 0.06 percent and the Hang Seng Index only closed flat. Tech company Lenovo Group perceived a drop in shares by 2.97 percent as it reported it was back on track for 2017 to March.
Malaysian budget airline AirAisa lost as much as 2.88 percent after it announced a 30 percent decline in quarterly net profits on 2017. Still, CEO Tony Fernandes said he was confident about the earnings of the company in the quarters to come.
Elsewhere, the price of oil slumped more than 5 percent in the previous session after news that investors had been anticipating the output cuts to be deepened.