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Asian shares continue to struggle on oil worries | |
(about 7 hours later) | |
Asian stocks struggled to make any headway on Wednesday as further falls in oil prices, together with concerns over the eurozone's economy, fuelled investor worries. | |
Following its worst day since March, the Nikkei opened down 0.4%, but finished the trading day barely changed at 16,885.33. | |
The price of benchmark Brent crude oil fell to $50.93 a barrel. | |
The price of US crude fell even further below the symbolic $50 level to $47.92. | |
The US crude price has now lost more than half of its value since mid-2014. | |
In addition to worries over oil prices and the political turmoil in Greece, a survey published on Tuesday indicating the eurozone saw anaemic growth in December further fuelled investor concerns. | |
Energy shares hit | |
In Greater China, shares also opened lower with the Shanghai Composite down 0.5% in early morning trade. The index later regained some ground, rising 0.4% to 3,366.02. | |
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng opened down, but had moved into positive territory in afternoon trade, up 0.4% at 23,583.10. | |
Australia's share market remained in negative territory all day, with the S&P/ASX 200 closing down 0.2% at 5,353.61 points, with shares in energy firms bring hit by the falling oil prices. | |
Shares in Santos, one of the nation's major oil and gas exploration firms, were down more than 1.3% at the end of the trading day, while resource giant BHP Billiton's shares finished flat. | |
Kara Ordway, a market strategist at City Index, said the Australian market looked weak but that it was "kind of a follow through from what we've seen in the US overnight". | Kara Ordway, a market strategist at City Index, said the Australian market looked weak but that it was "kind of a follow through from what we've seen in the US overnight". |
Leading US stock indexes closed lower for the fifth consecutive trading session on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 clocking its worst losing streak since late 2013. | |
In South Korea, the benchmark Kospi reversed earlier losses and moved into positive ground by the end of the day, closing up 0.7% at 1,883.83. | |
Shares in Korean Air Lines continued to fall, sliding 4.7%. Its shares had dropped more than 6% on Tuesday after announcing it would sell more than 500bn won ($455m) worth of new shares as it seeks to reduce its debt. |