asia markets mixed as shanghai recovers

Asian stock markets were mixed on Thursday as Shanghai revived after China's rate hike put the region on edge, while oil prices again rose due to worries about Egypt.


The Shanghai Composite Index ended the session up 1.59 per cent, or 455.41 points, at 2,818.16, led by a surge among car makers after they reported strong January sales.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.97 per cent, or 455.41 points, at 22,708.62. The index has lost five per cent this week.
Tokyo's Nikkei closed 0.11 per cent, or 12.18 points, lower at 10,605.65 as Japanese traders went into consolidation mode before a public holiday and after a weak lead from Wall Street.

In Tokyo Toyota stood out, with the car giant's shares surging after it revised its full-year earnings outlook upwards, the US government found no fault with electronic systems blamed for acceleration problems, and reports emerged of a planned joint venture in Russia's Far East.
China's latest move to rein in inflation with an interest rate rise on Tuesday continued to worry Hong Kong, as US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke made rare criticism of the Beijing central bank's anti-inflationary strategy.
Steven Leung, sales director at UOB KayHian in Hong Kong, told Dow Jones Newswires that "inflationary pressures in China continue to unnerve investors and we don't expect any rebound in the local bourse to be significant."

Adding to market worries, a newspaper controlled by the Chinese central bank carried a prediction by a government economist that inflation could exceed five per cent for the first two months of the year.
On Wednesday, Bernanke called China's interest rate hike a "surprising" way to tackle inflation, and urged Beijing to instead let its currency rise.
In rare criticism of another central bank's policies, he told a committee in the House of Representatives: "It would be both in our interest and in the Chinese interest for them to raise the value of their currency. And it would help them with their inflation problem."
Oil prices were higher on persistent concerns over the crisis in Egypt, where the embattled government has warned of a military crackdown against protesters.
In other markets, Singapore tumbled 1.50 per cent, with Singapore Telecom falling 1.3 per cent after reporting marginally higher third quarter earnings.
Seoul ended 1.81 per cent lower, Taipei fell 1.89 per cent, Jakarta fell 1.28 per cent, Kuala Lumpur closed down 2.09 per cent, Manila fell 2.73 per cent, and Bangkok fell 2.14 per cent.
Mumbai ended 0.74 per cent lower.
Shares in companies belonging to the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group rebounded after taking a hammering on Wednesday on rumours that India's top accounting body was looking into its financial affairs.
Investors wiped $2.6 billion off the value of shares in the group's six publicly traded companies. Bosses on Thursday described the rumours as "completely false and baseless".