SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--Asian markets ended mixed Friday, with commodity producers fronting gains in Sydney, while Shanghai shares tumbled as investors took profits in a range of stocks that recently outperformed the benchmark index. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average finished flat, with exporters extending losses on the yen's strength against the U.S. dollar. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.5%, South Korea's Kospi rose 0.2% after a choppy session, China's Shanghai Composite lost 1.8%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index advanced 0.7%. In afternoon trading, India's Sensex and Singapore's Straits Times Index had both shed 0.4%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down one point in screen trade. "The market is really just marking time because global economic data has been mixed, (and) we've risen about 5% in the last eight days," said Shaw Stockbroking head of trading, Jamie Spiteri, in Sydney. "It will take time to resolve the issues overhanging markets, whether you are talking about European debt, the sustainability of U.S. economic recovery, Asian growth or our domestic political situation," he said. A successful Spanish government bond auction Thursday helped allay concerns over the creditworthiness of Spanish government debt, providing some relief for investors still nervous about the euro-zone debt crisis. "Gains in the euro against the U.S. dollar after the successful Spanish bond auction will likely help keep sentiment positive as that's a sign of easing risk aversion," said Lee Kyoung-min, analyst at Woori Investment & Securities in Seoul. The Australian market was boosted by a rebound in cyclical stocks after the previous day's pullback, with materials, energy and financial shares underpinning gains. BHP Billiton edged up 0.8%, Rio Tinto rose 1.1% and Newcrest Mining advanced 1.7%. David Jones fell 0.4% on news the company's Chief Executive Mark McInnes had resigned after admitting to behavior that was "unbecoming of a chief executive to a female staff member" at two company functions. The Tokyo market ended flat after seesawing, weighed by concerns about the U.S. economic recovery and a stronger yen. "It's true European concerns are receding, but there's growing uncertainty on U.S. economic conditions," said Hideyuki Ishiguro, strategist at Okasan Securities. Toyota Motor Corp. dropped 1.7%, while Honda Motor Co. gave up 1.7% on the stronger yen and lingering worries about strikes in China. Tokyo Electron added 0.5% and Advantest Corp. gained 0.2% on stronger chip manufacturing equipment orders in May. Nintendo gained 2.0% on hopes for strong demand for the Nintendo 3DS, which it unveiled this week. Ranking among the big losers in Shanghai, Jaingzhong Pharmaceutical sank 4.1% and Harbin Pharmaceutical Group gave up 5.8% on follow-up selling after Thursday's sharp declines. Tsingtao Brewery lost 4.2% and Qingdao Haier shed 2.0%, while Shenzhen Clou Electronics and Advanced Technology & Materials slumped by the day's 10% limit in Shenzhen. All those stocks have outperformed the respective benchmark indexes in Shanghai and Shenzhen in the year to date. Blue-chip Hong Kong developer Henderson Land fell 1.1% after the government said Thursday that regulatory and law enforcement units are investigating the cancellation of home sales at a luxury project it launched at 39 Conduit Road. In Mumbai, shares of heavyweight Reliance Industries declined 1.0% after Chairman Mukesh Ambani told shareholders the company will reenter the power and telecommunications sectors after he recently scrapped a non-compete agreement with younger brother Anil Ambani. The two brothers had split Reliance group assets a few years ago under an agreement that gave control of the group's telecommunications and power businesses to Anil Ambani. Shares of Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communications dropped 2.3% and Reliance Power dropped 1.8%. In South Korea, Hynix Semiconductor slipped 0.2% to KRW28,150 ($23.4) despite state-run KDI's successful sale of its 0.7% stake in the chipmaker at KRW28,200 per share. "Hynix shares were sold at a good price and digested well via the block sale," said Lee Sun-tae, an analyst at Meritz Securities, noting that the stock gained 3.3% Thursday. Elsewhere in the region, Taiwan's Taiex declined 0.3%, New Zealand's NZX 50 inched up 0.1% and Philippine shares ended 0.7% higher. In late afternoon, Indonesian stocks were 1.2% higher and Thailand's SET Index gained 0.2%. In foreign-exchange markets, the euro was buying $1.2397 from $1.2388 late Thursday in New York, and 112.51 yen from 112.72 yen. The dollar was fetching 90.75 yen, compared with 91.00 yen. "It still looks like an environment of sell-on-rallies for the euro and other risk currencies, with their gains likely to run out of steam over coming days," said Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank in a research note. "There is little of interest today in terms of data releases, suggesting that currencies are likely to consolidate in ranges over the near term." Lead Japanese government bond futures were up 0.20 at 140.61 points, supported by a rise in U.S. Treasurys on Thursday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year JGB was down two basis points at 1.200%. Spot gold was at $1,243.90 per troy ounce, down $1.30 from late New York trade on Thursday. July Nymex crude-oil futures were down 23 cents at $76.56 per barrel on Globex. -Dow Jones Newswires; +65-6415-4140; markettalk@dowjones.com

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