Asian Shares Mixed on Thursday

Shares were mixed in Asia on Thursday as the latest batch of company earnings reports kept investors in a buying mood and pushed benchmarks on Wall Street higher, the Associated Press reported.

Markets in China remained closed for Lunar New Year holidays. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost 1.1% to 27,241.31 while the S&P/ASX 200 gave up 0.1% to 7,078.00. Seoul’s Kospi climbed 1.7% to 2,707.82.

U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 55 cents to $87.71 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It had gained 6 cents to $88.26 per barrel on Wednesday.

Brent crude, the basis for pricing international oils, lost 43 cents to $89.04 per barrel.

In other trading, the U.S. dollar was unchanged at 114.43 Japanese yen. The euro was flat at $1.1306.