EGRNF China Evergrande Group (CE)

Oil's push into bull territory boosted energy stocks across Asia early on Friday, but the gains failed to lift other sectors and kept most of the region's share markets in the red.

The Nikkei Stock Average was last down 0.1%, after rising as much as 0.8% earlier in the session amid a weaker yen and strong energy prices.

"This morning we see that the Japanese yen is weakening a little bit against the U.S. dollar—that [helped] the Nikkei open higher," said Margaret Yang, a market analyst at CMC Markets.

Still, uncertainty over the U.S. interest-rate outlook still weighs, analysts say, ahead of the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole symposium scheduled for next Friday.

"It's hard to expect Chairwoman [Janet] Yellen...will signal a clear message to the market," said Masashi Murata, currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in Tokyo, in a note.

Rather, her speech at Jackson Hole will more likely provide a mixture of optimistic and pessimistic views on the economy, he said.

In the Tokyo market, trading firm Mitsui & Co. Ltd. was trading 3.2% higher and oil explorer Inpex Corp. rose 4%. Japanese trading houses were also benefiting from a recovery in global economic sentiment, particularly in China, with analysts pointing to Beijing's ongoing efforts to address excess capacity in world's second largest economy.

"China-linked stocks such as trading houses are getting a boost" in Japan, said Eiji Kinouchi, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.1%, held up by commodity heavyweights BHP Billiton Ltd., which gained 1.9%, and Rio Tinto Ltd., which added 1%.

Australian oil and gas explorer Woodside Petroleum Ltd. was 2.8% higher, even though its profit for the first-half missed estimates. But broker RBC Capital Markets said operating costs were "pleasingly better" than forecast, and an upgrade on annual production guidance was welcomed.

Shares in Greater China were down, on profit-taking pressure following their recent strength. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was off 0.5%, after hitting a fresh nine-month high on Thursday, while the Shanghai Composite Index traded 0.4% lower.

In early Asian trade, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude was 0.1% higher, with Brent giving up its gains to trade 0.3% lower. Oil entered into bull market overnight in the U.S. as falling stockpiles and talk of a production cap by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries led to gains, in the latest in a series of big swings for the oil market. The WTI crude prices have climbed 22% since Aug. 2.

Meanwhile, Chinese government data on Thursday showed average housing prices in the country were about steady in July compared with a month earlier, as city governments tightened homebuying rules to cool housing markets.

That pushed up commodity prices on Thursday, with aluminum up 0.3%, copper rising 1%, and nickel adding 1.7% on the London Metal Exchange.

But shares of Chinese developers didn't react much to the latest housing data. In Hong Kong, Agile Group Holdings was off 1.2%, while China Evergrande Group fell 2.1%.

Tagline to Ese Erheriene, Kosaku Narioka, Robb Stewart, Dominique Fong and Hiroyuki Kachi.

Write to Kenan Machado at kenan.machado@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 18, 2016 23:55 ET (03:55 GMT)

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