Asian shares retraced some early gains Wednesday to close mixed, with South Korea and Hong Kong falling into the red, while the Australia and Shanghai markets ended on a positive note.
The Nikkei 225 gained 51.48 points, or 0.3%, to 19,033.71. The Japanese market finished its final trading day of the year in positive territory as the Nikkei registered a yearly gain of 9.3%
The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong sifted off 117.47 points, or 0.5%, to 21,882.15
The yen traded flat at 120.47 against the U.S. dollar as export stocks such as Toyota, Honda, and Sony all closed up.
Shares of Fujifilm Holdings ended up 2.6% after local newspaper Yomiuri reported that Toshiba, still recovering from its accounting scandal earlier in the year, will likely sell its equipment business unit, Toshiba Medical Systems, to the company.
Toshiba shares finished 7.7% higher.
Electronic manufacturer Pioneer saw its shares end up 5% after Nomura Securities raised its target price.
Meanwhile energy plays Inpex hiked 0.2% while Japan Petroleum saw gains of 0.9%.
Big movers in Korea included Samsung Engineering, which closed up 16.9% after surging nearly 30% Tuesday following the announcement of contracts from Samsung Electronics. The consumer electronics giant was up 0.5%
Reuters, citing a government official, reported a South Korean regulator has ordered Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors to sell part of their stakes in steelmaker Hyundai Steel to comply with regulations concerning big industrial groups. Local media Donga Ilbo said the companies were ordered to sell a combined 8.81 million shares worth 460 billion won ($393 million U.S.) in Hyundai Steel by Jan. 1, 2016.
Hyundai Motor shares closed flat, while Kia Motors shares were down 0.9% Hyundai Steel saw losses of 4.5%.
In corporate news, credit ratings agency Moody's has cut Noble Group's rating to junk status on liquidity concerns, capping a year of troubles for the Hong Kong-based commodities trader. The rating cut will likely increase Noble's borrowing costs and will make it harder for the company to refinance debt to shore up its finances. Noble shares fell as much as 8% in Singapore.
The Australian market closed at a two-month high, with all sectors finishing in the green. The big four banks climbed, with National Australia Bank,Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ tacking on up to 1.9%.
While he had expected heavyweight miners Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton would rise on news of copper output cuts in China, which sent March futures of the metal up 2.8 percent, the two were nearly flat.
Rio Tinto erased morning losses to close up a mere 0.02%. BHP Billiton also trimmed losses, but still finished in the red, down 0.1%.
Energy plays closed mixed, with Santos down 0.3% while Oil Search and Woodside Petroleum both finished in positive territory.
CHINA
The CSI 300 Index forged ahead 3.3 points, or 0.1%, to 3,765.18
Before trading began, the People's Bank of China set the official yuan mid-point at 6.4895 against the U.S. dollar. The yuan traded lower at 6.4898 against the dollar.
Reports said China's state planner approved the second phase of a 170.1 kilometer railway project worth 52.9 billion yuan ($8.16 billion U.S.) in Dalian, due to be completed by 2020.
