By Virginia Harrison in Sydney and V. Phani Kumar in Hong Kong HONG KONG (MarketWatch)--Most Asian stock markets ended lower Monday on worries about the impact of high oil prices on global economic growth, with Japanese shares reversing early gains as the yen's rebound after recent losses led investors to lock in profits. Mainland Chinese stocks extended its string of gains amid improved liquidity after Beijing's monetary easing earlier this month, with automobile companies leading the charge. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.9%, South Korea's Kospi lost 1.4% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index dropped 0.9%. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average gave up 0.1%, while China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.3%. "Momentum is slowing down - there is some caution in the air as the market refocuses attention on higher oil prices," said Tom Kaan, director of equity sales at Louis Capital Markets in Hong Kong. April Nymex crude oil futures stayed above $109 a barrel. Although they eased a little in electronic trading during Asian hours Monday, the prices are still up more than 10% so far in February. Kaan said if energy prices were to rise further, "we could see a short-term reversal of the recent rally. Higher oil prices will impact on inflation." U.S. stock index futures were lower, with Dow Jones Industrial Average futures off 11 points. The retreat in Tokyo came as the U.S. dollar gave up some of its recent gains against the yen, prompting investors to take profits. Shares of Fanuc dropped 1.5%, Komatsu fell 0.6% and Nikon shed 1.7%. Concern that elevated oil prices would hurt the global economy and weaken the U.S. recovery weighed on sentiment. In Seoul, shares of Hyundai Motor gave up 3% and Asiana Airlines dropped 2.2%, while Cathay Pacific Airways fell 4.4% in Hong Kong. Some energy producers also fell on a pullback in oil prices, with Woodside Petroleum and Santos each falling 0.5% in Sydney. Inpex lost 2.5% in Tokyo and PetroChina fell 0.5% in Hong Kong. Caltex Australia dropped 0.6% in Sydney as the firm swung to a steep annual loss after writing down the value of its two refineries. Shares of mainland car companies bucked the broad weakness, following news that only Chinese-branded vehicles would qualify for use by the government under a preliminary 2012 list of procurement choices released during the weekend. In Hong Kong, BYD Co. climbed 2.6% and Geely Automobile Holdings gained 3.8%. Anhui Jianghuai Automobile rose by the day's 10% limit in Shanghai, while FAW Car gained 2% in Shenzhen. The fall for Australian stocks came even as some political uncertainty dissipated after Prime Minister Julia Gillard defeated her predecessor Kevin Rudd in a leadership challenge. Stronger metal prices on Friday supported some commodity-linked stocks across Asia, with Fortescue Metals Group up 0.4% and Eldorado Gold 2.0% higher. Gold producer Newcrest Mining fell 3.0% after some brokers downgraded the stock. -Dow Jones Newswires; +65-6415-4140; markettalk@dowjones.com TALK BACK: We invite readers to send us comments on this or other financial news topics. Please email us at TalkbackAsia@dowjones.com. Readers should include their full names, work or home addresses and telephone numbers for verification purposes. We reserve the right to edit and publish your comments along with your name; we reserve the right not to publish reader comments.

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