Shares were mostly higher in Asia on Thursday after a lackluster day on Wall Street, where major indexes spent the day drifting up and down near their record highs. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index climbed 1.2% to 28,828.10 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong edged 0.2% higher to 28,295.90. South Korea's Kospi was flat at 3,147.10. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.4% to 6,713.80. The Shanghai Composite index dropped 0.8% to 3,571.55, AP reported. In other trading Thursday, benchmark U.S. crude oil lost 8 cents to $52.83 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It shed 30 cents to $52.91 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, lost 10 cents to $55.96 per barrel. The U.S. dollar slipped to 103.86 Japanese yen from 103.89 yen late Wednesday. The euro rose to $1.2164 from $1.2156.
