By MYRA P. SAEFONG, SHRI NAVARATNAM and GA-WOON PHILIP VAHN
TOKYO—Asian stock markets were mixed Monday, with QR National's debut supporting Australia's market and recent weakness in the yen helping Japan's benchmark indexes log four winning sessions in row.
But real-estate shares in Hong Kong finished sharply lower in the wake of government measures to cool property prices.
In Japan, the Nikkei Stock Average closed up 0.9% and broader Topix rose 0.7%. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 ended 0.3% higher, South Korea's Kospi Composite rose 0.2% and Taiwan's main index gained 0.8%. The Shanghai Composite Index finished 0.2% lower while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.4%.
Regional sentiment was somewhat upbeat after Ireland finally applied for bailout money from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, although the terms and conditions of the rescue package are yet to be finalized.
"I think it's a positive force in driving sentiment," said Brett McGonegal, managing director at Cantor Fitzgerald. Traders are "being forced out of the bond market and that money is cycling into the equity market. Following that thought, Asia is presenting itself as the best venue."
But Richard Hastings, a strategist at Global Hunter Securities, said "earnings quality and liquidity are dominating the global markets—not dread, not fear and not Ireland."
"The Irish banking crisis is not big enough to derail global equities right now," he said, noting that the Irish crisis is primarily a banking crisis, whereas the Greek crisis was "perceived as a sovereign crisis of a deeper type, and it led to more fear."
In Tokyo, the yen's recent weakness against the euro and yen encouraged buying in exporters' stocks.
Overall, "the dollar yen is finding a new level and forcing macro guys and others to achieve proper weighting in Japan," said Mr. McGonegal. "This trade in Japan will have legs."
Against that backdrop, TDK rose 2.4%, Nikon advanced 1.5%, Toyota Motor tacked on 1.1% and Isuzu Motors rose 3.5%.
In China, investors traded with caution after the People's Bank of China Friday said it will raise banks' reserve requirement ratio by half of a percentage point from Nov. 29, the fifth such increase this year, aimed at reining in credit growth and rising inflation.
However, analysts said the central bank's latest move lowers the chance of an interest rate increase in November.
"The PBOC raised the RRR instead of interest rates, which suggests the authorities are cautious about launching new tightening measures," said Amy Lin at Capital Securities.
Defensive names such as wine makers and pharmaceutical companies were among the gainers, with Shanxi Xinghuacun Fen Wine Factory up 2.8% and Jiangsu Kanion Pharmaceutical 4.4% higher. But banking stocks ended lower, with Bank of China down 1.2% and China Citic Bank losing 2.3% in Shanghai.
The Australian market found support following a reasonably well-received debut by QR National. Stock in the railway firm closed at 2.65 Australian dollars (US$2.64), up from its A$2.55 offer price.
"The solid opening-day performance provided a welcome boost to sentiment, particularly given the negative press and dismal performance of recent high-profile floats," said Ben Potter, market strategist at IG Markets.
The Queensland government said Saturday it raised A$4.6 billion in gross proceeds from the initial public offering—the first multibillion dollar IPO to come to the domestic market since Myer Holdings late last year.
The Hong Kong market was weighed by sharp losses in property plays after the government on Friday delivered some of its toughest moves thus far to cool the city's red-hot real estate market. The new measures would significantly increase transaction costs for short-term speculators.
Real estate agency Midland Holdings tumbled 17.4%, while Cheung Kong fell 3.2% and Sun Hung Kai Properties lost 3.1%. The government is determined to rein in the housing market and "is prepared to go very far to achieve that aim," UOB KayHian wrote in a research note.
Elsewhere in the region, New Zealand's NZX-50 closed 0.9% higher and Philippine shares ended down 0.4%. In late trading, India's Sensex rose 1.6%, Singapore's Straits Times Index was flat and Thai shares were up 0.9%.
In foreign-exchange markets, the Irish bailout request provided the euro a lift. "The news will not move the euro too much, given it has been widely anticipated, but it may reduce at least temporarily the risk of further destabilizing contagion to other periphery markets and thus provide modest support," said Greg Gibbs, currency strategist at RBS in Sydney.
The euro was fetching $1.3736 against the U.S. dollar, from $1.3691 late Friday in New York, and 114.52 against the yen, from 114.26 yen. The dollar was at 83.41 yen from 83.46 yen.
The New Zealand dollar fell sharply after Standard & Poor's revised the outlook on the country's foreign currency sovereign credit rating to negative from stable, saying New Zealand's vulnerability to external shocks raises "risks to the country's economic recovery and credit quality."
The kiwi dollar was recently trading at US$0.7761, from US$0.7832 just prior to the S&P news. Mike Hollows, director of trading at HiFX in Auckland, said that the S&P statement doesn't appear to contain much that's new, "so it's come as a bit of a surprise that they have come out and changed their outlook."
Lead December Japanese government bond futures closed down 0.53 at 141.23 points, as gains in Tokyo share prices and the yen's recent falling trend lessened demand for safe-haven assets. The 10-year JGB yield was up 6.0 basis points at 1.120%.
Spot gold was at $1,360.80 per troy ounce, up $6.70 from the New York close on Friday. January crude-oil futures were up 72 cents at $82.70 per barrel on Globex.
