Asian indices end flat

The US dollar remained buoyed by an unexpectedly strong ADP employment report earlier this week which showed a record number of private sector jobs created in the US in December and prompted economists to raise their forecasts for the payrolls data.

Non-farm payrolls probably increased by an estimated 175,000 in December and the jobless rate eased to 9.7 per cent from 9.8 per cent, according to a Reuters survey.

Positive news from the US, thus, helped some of the Asian indices to trade steady, and end the day positively.

Japan's Nikkei, lifted by a strong day on Chinese bourses, recovered from earlier losses to make a 0.1 per cent gain on the day, taking its weekly rise to 3 per cent and extending its recent outperformance among Asian markets.

The Nikkei 225 finally ended the day flat at 0.1% at 10,541.

Shares in Samsung Electronics, the world's number1 memory chip maker, fell 1.3 per cent after the company forecast weaker-than-expected fourth quarter earnings. Most analysts see this a blip, with demand for many of the company's businesses, including smartphones, picking up.

Samsung shares are up nearly 25 per cent over the past quarter and hovering near record highs.

The Shanghai Composite closed up 0.5% at 2,839, as Shanghai's key stocks index rose 1.5 per cent, breaking through key chart resistance, driven by shares in Chinese banks that have lagged global peers.

Investors will look ahead to the start of the corporate earnings season in the US for signs whether an improving macroeconomic landscape is translating into company profits.

South Korea's benchmark index, the Seoul Composite, moved up 0.4% and closed at 2,086, after closing down 0.2% on Thursday.

Some of the other major Asian indices closed in the red. These included the Hang Seng at 23,687 down 0.4%, the Straits Times down 0.8% at 3,254, and the Taiwan Weighted at 8,783 down 1.1%.

As the euro slumped to a four-month low against the dollar on Friday and looked set for more weakness if US payrolls data meets recently raised forecasts, strengthening the case for a sustainable economic recovery, major European indices were trading in the red.

The CAC 40 was trading down 0.9% at 3,870, while the DAX slipped 0.4% at 6,953, and the FTSE 100 shed 0.6% at 5,981 at 2:20 pm.