Asian stock markets were mostly lower Thursday after disappointing U.S. earnings reports dented investor sentiment,AP reported. Japan's Nikkei 225 slid 0.6 percent to 18,435.87 and South Korea's Kospi dropped 1 percent to 2,023.00. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.7 percent to 22,832.10 and China's Shanghai Composite Index was 0.6 percent higher at 3,339.57. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3 percent to 5,263.80. Shares of Samsung Engineering traded about 19 percent lower in Seoul after diving as much as 24 percent following its announcement of a quarterly net loss of 1.3 trillion won ($1.14 billion) for the July-September quarter. The engineering company with a market value of about 1.1 trillion won said it will sell 1.2 trillion won of new shares to improve its financial status and seek to sell its headquarters building worth 350 billion won ($308 million). Samsung SDI, the biggest shareholder in Samsung Engineering, plunged 5 percent and Samsung Heavy Industries, another Samsung affiliated company, sank 6 percent. Benchmark U.S. crude added 23 cents to $45.43 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.09 to close at $45.20 a barrel on Wednesday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, gained 27 cents to $48.12 a barrel in London. The euro weakened to $1.133 from $1.134 while the dollar fell to 119.72 yen from 119.90 yen.
