The losses followed a slump among some major Asian benchmarks earlier in the day. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.5 percent to close at 8,831.93. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.6 percent to 1,972.34. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.4 percent at 4,251.20. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was marginally higher at 20,756.98. Benchmarks in Indonesia, New Zealand and the Philippines fell, while Singapore and Taiwan rose.
Mainland Chinese shares extended gains fueled by news of fresh support for the farming and small-business sectors, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rising 0.8 percent to 2,330.41 while the Shenzhen Composite Index added 1.5 percent to 878.29. “The gains mainly stem from recent supportive policies, which will help drive the rally in the short-term, though the room for further gains is limited,’’ said Zhang Jiuhui, an analyst at Great Wall Securities, based in Beijing.
Poly Real Estate, China’s second-largest listed property developer, climbed 1.1 percent, while industry leader China Vanke gained 1.4 percent. China Life Insurance, China’s biggest insurance company, gained 1.2 percent and Bank of Communications rose 1.8 percent.
Later Friday, the U.S. government releases its report on January job creation and the unemployment rate. In December, the country added 200,000 jobs, and the jobless rate was 8.5 percent.
Some analysts said they are not expecting a strong increase in jobs, based on a report Wednesday from private payroll agency ADP. The report said private-sector employment rose by 170,000 in January from the previous month — fewer jobs than expected.
“The two series continue to track fairly closely and both show what everyone has rightfully fretted about for the past 18 months: there hasn’t been any trend improvement in job growth since mid-2010,’’ said analysts at DBS Bank Ltd. in Singapore.
Traders were largely refraining from big moves ahead of the employment data in case it turns out to be worse than expected.
