Asia stocks mixed as global growth concerns weigh; Nikkei up 0.1%

Investing.com - Asian stock markets were mixed in tepid trade on Monday, as traders were reluctant to jump into equities after Friday’s weak U.S. home sales data added to lingering concerns over the outlook for global economic growth.

During late Asian trade, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index added 0.2%, Australia’s ASX/200 Index dipped 0.2%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index eased up 0.1%.

Traders kept to the sidelines after a report Friday showed that new home sales in the U.S. in February dropped 1.6% to a 313,000 annual pace, the slowest since October, from a 318,000 annual rate in January and against expectations for an increase to 325,000.

The data came after the release of dismal manufacturing data from China and the euro zone, which pointed to a slowdown in those economies.

In Japan, the Nikkei managed to eek out small gains, as a weaker yen continued to underpin sentiment and boost exporters, but gains were limited as market participants looked to lock profit ahead of the end of the Japanese fiscal year next week.

Electronics manufacture Hitachi saw shares jump 3.4%, Nissan rose 2.45%, while shares in Kyocera, an electronics maker that gets nearly 20% of its revenue overseas, added 1.2%.

Shares in silicon wafer maker Sumco rallied 3.1 percent after Goldman Sachs raised its estimate for dynamic random access memory prices.

On the downside, investment bank Nomura Holdings dropped 2.65% amid reports an employee at the firm has been involved in insider-trading in connection with a share offering by oil firm Inpex.

Elsewhere, shares in Hong Kong were boosted by strong gains in property developers amid speculation the city’s newly-elected leader Leung Chuan-ying will keep the development policies of the previous administration.

Following the weekend election of Chun-ying Leung as the next chief executive of Hong Kong, Citigroup said in a report, “We reiterate our view that general property prices will not fall substantially on the simple theme of Leung taking office.”

Sino Land shares jumped 4.5%, Sun Hung Kai Properties rose 2.55%, while real estate development firms New World Development and Henderson Land Development rallied 4.15% and 2.85% respectively.

But concerns over softening corporate profits weighed on investor sentiment. China Construction Bank saw shares slide 0.85% despite reporting that its 2011 net profit rose 26%. However, non-performing loans increased by a smaller-than-expected 10% quarter-on-quarter.

Shares in BDY tumbled 5.6% after the automaker partly owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway warned that first-quarter profit may fall as much as 95%.

Meanwhile, European stock markets were mostly lower after the open, as concerns over the outlook for the global economic outlook weighed, ahead of the release of German economic data later in the day.

The EURO STOXX 50 slumped 0.6%, France’s CAC 40 shed 0.35%, Germany's DAX dipped 0.15%, while London’s FTSE 100 added 0.1%.

Later in the day, the Ifo Institute was to release a report on German business climate, while the U.S. was to publish industry data on pending home sales.