Asian shares mixed in scant New Year Eve trading

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares were mixed in Asia on Friday after a late slide pulled major indexes into the red on Wall Street, leaving the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slightly below record highs.

Tokyo and many other regional markets were closed.

A survey released Friday showed Chinese factory activity edged higher in December as supply disruptions eased and export demand weakened.

The monthly purchasing managers’ index issued by the national statistics agency and an industry group gained to 50.3 from November’s 50.1 on a 100-point scale on which numbers above 50 show activity accelerating.

Hong Kong jumped 1.2% in New Year’s Eve trading to 23,397.67 and the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.5% to 3,638.24. Sydney lost 0.9% to 7,444.60 as the number of new coronavirus cases in some parts of Australia surged.

India's Sensex rose 0.7%, while Singapore and Malaysia edged lower.

2021 was a mixed year for Asian markets. Some benchmarks, like the Hang Seng in Hong Kong which has suffered from troubles in China's property sector and U.S.-Chinese friction, have languished. Others, like Tokyo's Nikkei 225 and the Shanghai Composite index, have gyrated but held relatively steady.

India's Sensex, meanwhile, breached new record highs despite a severe wave of COVID-19 in the spring.

On Thursday, the benchmark S&P 500 gave up 0.3% and the Dow and the Nasdaq each fell 0.2%. Trading was relatively quiet with many investors having closed out their positions for the year.

Investors will likely not make any large moves until next week with the start of the New Year, though in China end-of-year window dressing may have pushed prices higher.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 index slipped 0.3% a day after notching a record high, closing at 4,778.73. The Dow, which also set a...