BANGKOK (AP) — Global stock markets were mixed Friday on 2011’s last trading day and turned in heavy losses for the year after Europe’s debt crisis and natural disasters battered a struggling global economy. Japan’s benchmark hit its lowest close in 29 years.

Benchmark oil hovered below $100 per barrel and the dollar weakened against the yen but rose against the euro.

Asian traders recorded gains for the day Friday but markets in Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong ended the year with double-digit losses.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index, after three straight days of losses, rose 0.4 percent to 8,429.45, but it was the lowest closing since 1982. China’s benchmark gained 1.2 percent to close at 2,199.42 — still, a 20 percent loss for the year.

European shares were steady or slightly down in early trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 0.2 percent at 5,555.92. Germany’s DAX was marginally down at 5,846.35 and France’s CAC-40 was nearly unchanged at 3,127.34.

Wall Street appeared headed for a lower closing, with Dow Jones industrial futures down 0.2 percent at 12,194 and SP 500 futures slipping 0.2 percent to 1,255.40.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.2 percent to close at 18,434.39 — a precipitous slide of 19.7 percent from a year ago. Singapore’s Straits Times Index closed down 1 percent at 2,646.35 — a 17.5 percent dive.

Australia’s benchmark SP ASX 200 ended the year at 4,140.4 — down 0.4 percent on the day and 14.5 percent lower for 2011. A day earlier, South Korea’s benchmark Kospi closed at 1,825.74 on Thursday — 11 percent down on its last trading session of the year Thursday.

Analysts said global stocks tumbled in lockstep, suffering from the effects of natural disasters, a wobbly recovery in the U.S. — and an escalating European debt crisis that has resisted repeated measures taken by the region’s governments and financial institutions.

“The big reason is Europe. Europe tried to muddle through without a real solution. They can save a small country like Greece, but they cannot save a big country like Italy. Two trillion euros in foreign debt — nobody in the world has that kind of money,” said Francis Lun, managing director of Lyncean Holdings in Hong Kong.

“Europe will enter a lost decade, a decade of no solutions and no growth,” he said. “Maybe except in Germany, their machinery is still selling.”

Japan’s benchmark plunged after the March 11 tsunami and earthquake disaster that destroyed huge chunks of the island nation’s northeastern region, left 20,000 people dead or missing and set off the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

Disaster damage extended to key suppliers for major companies like Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp., which suffered production disruptions. The Thai flooding that followed caused similar problems for automakers, including Honda Motor Co., but on a smaller scale.

The Tokyo market also saw two big-name brands lose much of their value.

One was Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that runs Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, where at least three reactors went into meltdown after tsunami destroyed backup generators to keep power going at the plant.

Some officials say TEPCO may have to be nationalized because of ballooning losses and the costs to bring the reactors under control and compensate victims.

Another was camera and medical equipment maker Olympus Corp., whose offices have been raided by criminal investigators after fabricated accounting to cover up massive investment losses came to light.

A British executive, who has since resigned from the board, was first to draw attention to the dubious investments, and has become a celebrity figure raising questions about old-style Japanese management.

Across the board, Japanese companies have been slammed by the rising value of the yen, which erodes the value of revenue from exports.

The Nikkei lost nearly a fifth of its value over the past year. It nose-dived right after the disaster, recouped some of those losses in July, but then started a decline that has the benchmark hovering at below the March value.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/12/29/business/AP-World-Markets.html?partner=rss&emc=rss