HONG KONG - Asian stocks mostly crept higher on Thursday amid nervousness about a likely Chinese rate hike, with Tokyo ending up before a surprise downgrade of Japan's sovereign debt sent the yen plunging. Tokyo closed 0.85 per cent, or 88.12 points, higher at 10,490.02 and Shanghai's Composite Index rose 1.49 per cent, or 40.34 points, to 2,749.15. But Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.27 per cent, or 63.62 points, to 23,779.62. Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 closed 1.7 points lower at 4,806.1 after Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced plans for a tax on higher earners to help pay the clean-up costs for this month's deadly floods. Japan's Nikkei edged higher after a strong lead from Wall Street and amid expectations of strong corporate earnings - with Standard & Poor's weighing in with its sovereign debt downgrade only after the market closed. The yen fell sharply against the dollar, tumbling to 83.22 yen from around 82.12 yen, minutes after the announcement of a downgrade to AA-, with tremors also felt on the Japanese credit default market. Against the euro the Japanese unit was at 113.02 compared with 112.69 in New York late Wednesday, while the single European currency edged down to $1.3656 from $1.3708. Commenting on the Japanese downgrade, Societe Generale signalled it was the first sign of Europe-style debt concerns spreading elsewhere. "This comes as part of wider concern particularly in Japan and the US regarding the sustainability of large structural deficit," said Societe Generale. While resource stocks climbed in China, the mood was muted amid expectations of an interest rate hike after the government said Wednesday it would raise the minimum downpayment on second-home purchases to 60 per cent from 50 per cent. "The measures will lower the expectations for property sales volumes" and hurt investment sentiment, Jacky Zhang, an analyst from Capital Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires. In New York on Wednesday, the Dow crept up 0.07 per cent, the broader S&P 500 rose 0.42 per cent and the tech-rich Nasdaq added 0.74 per cent. The blue-chip Dow made a brief foray above the symbolic threshold of 12,000 for the first time since June 2008, before ending at 11,985.44. On oil markets New York's main contract, light sweet crude for March delivery, fell 16 cents to $87.17 per barrel and Brent North Sea crude for delivery in March dipped 26 cents to $97.65. Gold closed at $1,341.00-$1,342.00 an ounce in Hong Kong, up from Wednesday's finish of $1,335.50-$1,336.50. In other markets: - Singapore closed flat, edging down 0.95 points to 3,219.83. Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp dropped 0.1 per cent to Sg$9.96 and Singapore Airlines was down 0.66 per cent at Sg$15.04. - Seoul rose 0.22 per cent, or 4.55 points, to 2,115.01, just off a record high reached last week. - Taipei rose 0.52 per cent, or 46.74 points, to 9,102.33. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co closed 0.8 per cent higher at Tw$75.2 while rival United Microelectronics Corp gained 3.45 per cent at Tw$18.0. - Jakarta rose 0.37 per cent, or 12.91 points, to 3,514.62. - Kuala Lumpur gained 0.46 per cent, or 6.96 points, to 1,526.96. Petronas Chemicals rose 2.7 per cent to 6.12 ringgit but RHB Capital was down 0.4 per cent at 8.42. - Manila rose 1.50 per cent, or 58.85 points, to 3,990.49. San Miguel soared 11 per cent to 178 pesos and Metropolitan Bank gained 3.8 per cent to 65.30. - Wellington fell 0.11 per cent, or 3.79 points, to 3,350.93. Air New Zealand fell 0.7 per cent to NZ$1.52 as investors worried about news of a government plan to sell some of its 76 per cent stake in the national carrier. Discount retailer The Warehouse ended down 0.5 per cent at NZ$3.69 and children's clothing retailer Pumpkin Patch shed 7.6 per cent to NZ$1.45.

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