Most Asian markets dropped Monday, with some tracking losses on Wall Street and others getting spooked by high oil prices, AP reported. The region's biggest bourse in Tokyo ended nearly flat amid slow trading as Japan prepared for a weeklong Buddhist holiday honoring the dead. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index slipped 5.13 points, or 0.04 percent, to close at 12,256.55 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. In currency trading, the dollar bought 109.54 yen on the Tokyo foreign exchange market late Monday, down 0.02 yen from late Friday but above the 109.38 yen it bought in New York later that day. The euro fell to US$1.2396 from US$1.2474 on Friday. Hong Kong stocks hit a fresh four-and-half year high, as investors shrugged aside concerns about high oil prices to buy shares in blue chips set to report interim earnings later this week. The blue chip Hang Seng Index rose 15.11 points, or 0.1 percent, to 15,466.06 _ the highest finish since Feb. 20, 2001, when it closed at 15,527. Blue-chip companies scheduled to report earnings this week include BOC Hong Kong Holdings, fixed-line phone operator PCCW Ltd. and Cheung Kong Infrastructure. BOC, Monday's biggest clue-chip gainer, advanced 1.51 percent. PCCW was up 0.97 percent and CKI rose 0.83 percent. Oil prices, 46 percent higher than a year ago, have risen nearly US$10 a barrel over the last three weeks. Prices have been lifted partly by a rash of breakdowns that affected about a dozen U.S. refineries that together can process 2.7 million barrels a day of crude, some 16 percent of total U.S. refining capacity. --mor 1416 Local Time 1116 GMT
