Washington: Asian shares were mixed on Monday after stocks fell broadly on Friday as Wall Street closed out a holiday-shortened week on a down note. US futures were lower while oil prices were little changed. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost 1 per cent to 39,894.62. The dollar gained against the Japanese yen, trading at 157.93 yen, up from 157.75 yen. The Tokyo market wrapped up trading for 2024 with a yearend ceremony as Japan began its New Year holidays, the biggest festival of the year.

South Korea’s Kospi added 0.2 per cent to 2,409.91. But shares of Jeju Air Co. lost 9 per cent after one of the company’s jets skidded off a runway, slammed into a concrete wall and burst into flames Sunday in South Korea as its landing gear failed to deploy. 179 people died in the crash. The disaster was yet another blow for Boeing in a dispiriting year, following a machinists strike, further safety problems with its troubled top-selling aircraft and a plunging stock price. Political turmoil persisted in South Korea as law enforcement officials requested a court warrant Monday to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol.

They are investigating whether his martial law decree on Dec. 3 amounted to rebellion. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong was flat at 20,090.30 while the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.2 per cent to 3,407.33. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dipped 0.3 per cent to 8,235.00. On Friday, the S&P 500 fell 1.1 per cent to 5,970.84. Roughly 90 per cent of stocks in the benchmark index lost ground, but it managed to hold onto a modest gain of 0.7 per cent for the week.