Asia markets cautious after China rate hike

HONG KONG: Asian stock markets got off to a sluggish start on Thursday, with Chinese shares hurting after this week's interest rate hike, while oil prices were again on the rise due to worries about Egypt.

Tokyo's Nikkei and Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 indexes were both flat, while Shanghai's Composite Index was down 0.17 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng opened 0.73 percent lower.

Tokyo was in consolidation mode ahead of a public holiday on Friday, traders said, following a weak lead from Wall Street overnight.

Toyota Motor 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.

Stock markets fell across Asia on Wednesday in the wake of China's rate hike, its third in four months. Hong Kong has fallen nearly four percent since the start of the week.

US stocks closed mixed in listless trading Wednesday as investors shrugged off a comment by Bernanke that the US economic recovery appeared to have strengthened but unemployment remained high, as well as merger and acquisition activity in the stock exchange sector.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose just 0.06 percent, the broader S&P 500 index fell 0.28 percent, while the tech-rich Nasdaq dropped 0.29 percent.