Hong Kong - Asian markets mostly sank on Friday, following Wall Street shares lower as the IMF cut its US growth outlook, with traders nervously watching events in Europe after Greece tied up a deal to delay its latest debt repayments.
While the delay gives Athens until the end of the month to reach an agreement with its creditors as it looks to reform its bailout terms, the euro retreated against the dollar and yen on concerns that stumbling blocks remain.
Tokyo slipped 0.13 percent, or 27.29 points, to close at 20,460.90, Sydney shed 0.11 percent, or 5.80 points, to 5,498.50 -- a fifth-straight loss -- and Seoul was down 0.23 percent, or 4.76 points, at 2,068.10.
In late trade Hong Kong skidded 0.82 percent but Shanghai rallied 1.20 percent.
Wall Street retreated after the International Monetary Fund slashed its forecasts for US growth this year to 2.5 percent from a previous estimate of 3.1 percent, citing a ports strike, bad winter weather, a strong dollar and the oil downturn.
Fund head Christine Lagarde also called on the Federal Reserve to refrain from hiking interest rates until 2016, saying conditions were not supportive of a move this year.
Her comments come as markets await the release Friday of US jobs growth for May, which is used by the Fed to guide rate policy.
The OPEC oil cartel will also hold a meeting later in the day to determine production levels, with expectations that it will continue pumping at the current high levels, which would put downward pressure on crude prices.
AFP
