Asian stocks were mostly lower on Thursday, AP reported. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gave up 0.8% to 27,103.02, extending its losses after closing down 1.7% on Wednesday. South Korea's Kospi lost 0.3% to 2,103.15 and the Nikkei 225 index in Japan lost 0.5% to 21,032.00. Australia's S&P ASX 200 was less than 0.1% lower at 6,542.40. The Shanghai Composite index added 0.1% to 2,911.17. Shares fell throughout Southeast Asia. Benchmark U.S. crude picked up 63 cents to $51.77 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It shed $2.13 to $51.14 per barrel on Wednesday. Brent crude oil, the international standard, jumped $1.18 to $61.15 per barrel. The contract lost $2.32 to $59.97 per barrel in the previous session. The dollar slipped to 108.32 Japanese yen from 108.50 yen late Wednesday. The euro rose to $1.1303 from $1.1288.
