Dow Jones Newswires/Singapore

A man looks at monitors displaying securities information at a brokerage in Taipei, Taiwan. The Taiex fell 1.7% yesterday

Asian stock markets were mostly lower yesterday, with resource stocks losing ground due to weakness in gold and oil prices Tuesday.

“Profit-taking is hitting resource stocks, such as oil and metal companies. But the further downside in the sector will likely be limited because of the recovering global economy,” said Zhang Xiang, an analyst at Guodu Securities in Beijing.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.6%, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.2% and South Korea’s Kospi ended down 0.1%. China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.5% and Taiwan’s Taiex fell 1.7%. Hong Kong was among the few winners, with the Hang Seng Index adding 0.4% for its sixth straight positive session.

Resources plays around the region lost ground. In Australia, the flooding in coal-rich Queensland state hit mining shares, with Rio Tinto down 0.9% and BHP Billiton shedding 1.0%. Inpex fell 0.4% and Sumitomo Metal Mining was off 1.8% in Japan. Zijin Mining’s Hong Kong shares slid 1.1% and its Shanghai shares lost 2.9%.

“The two themes today are hard commodities have eased off overnight, such as gold, copper and oil,” said Ord Minnett Senior Client Advisor Nick Paltoglou. “But soft commodities are back in the spotlight.” He added, “there is growing interest in food demand around the planet and businesses associated with that.”

In Australia, GrainCorp, which dropped sharply late last year on worries over rain-delayed harvests, gained 3.9% after it said Tuesday that grain received into its network rose more than 50% from December 20 to 10.7mn metric tonnes.

Insurance companies, also recovered some ground after declining on Tuesday. Insurance Australia Group clawed back 1.6% and QBE Insurance Group regained 0.5%.

In Japan, smartphone-related stocks dominated otherwise lackluster market action. Sharp ended up 3.0% after a Nikkei report that idled LCD production lines at two factories had resumed operations.

Renesas Electronics added 11% after a Nikkei report that the company has developed a chip that will allow 16-megapixel images on smartphone cameras for the first time.

On the downside, Yahoo Japan lost 4.7% as Goldman Sachs resumed coverage with a sell rating, saying smart phones and social-media sites such as Facebook and could put pressure on the company by diverting traffic away from portal sites.

In South Korea, the main index briefly rose to touch a record high before easing on profit-taking pressure in technology and financial sector stocks that had gained sharply in recent sessions. Samsung Electronics was down 1.7% KB Financial Group fell 2.3%.

Hyundai Engineering & Construction rose 6.7% after a court ruled late Tuesday against Hyundai Group’s injunction filing to stop the builder’s creditors from opening talks with Hyundai Motor Group to sell a 34.88% stake in Hyundai E&C.