Topic: Australia & New Zealand

New Zealand's second largest city Christchurch was shaken by a magnitude 5.2 earthquake on Friday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

Asian shares inched higher on Friday, helped by a slight uptick in U.S. shares overnight that encouraged investors to return cautiously to buy up bargains after recent slides, but weak global data and Europe's fiscal woes limited the gains.

New Zealand unveiled its toughest budget in 20 years on Thursday, with no spending increase and moves to increase the tax take in the struggling economy, as it laid out a return to a budget surplus by 2015.

Hanlong Mining and Sundance Resources have agreed to delay to November the target date for the Chinese firm to seal a $1.3 billion takeover of the Australian group as Hanlong is struggling to line up funding from China.

Asian shares eased on Thursday as markets were vulnerable to faltering factory orders in China and lack of concrete measures shown by European leaders to tackle the risk of Greece leaving the currency bloc.

Asian shares retreated on Wednesday as hopes for fresh measures to tackle euro zone debt faded and caution set in ahead of a meeting of European leaders, with renewed fears Greece would leave the euro bloc dampening appetite for riskier assets.

Myer, Australia's largest department store chain, cut its profit guidance for the year after posting a 2.1 percent decline in same-store sales in its fiscal third quarter as consumers stuck to their frugal shopping habits.

Qantas Airways, said it plans to split its loss-making international and profitable domestic businesses, though Australia's top airline was viewed by analysts as unlikely to spin off or sell the international operations.

Asian markets kept gains on Tuesday after reclaiming some ground to move off lows for the year the day before, as hopes grew that Europe would embark on fresh action to address its debt crisis while promoting growth.

Australia's top airline Qantas Airways said it will consolidate its three heavy maintenance facilities and stop doing heavy maintenance at Tullamarine in Melbourne, resulting in 500 job losses.

Asian markets recovered some ground on Monday after last week's heavy losses, but investors remained wary about the euro zone despite world leaders calling for Greece to stay in the monetary union and for Europe to balance austerity with growth.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group's chief executive said European funding markets were "essentially closed" because of turmoil in Europe, while Asia and U.S. markets were open, clarifying his earlier comments on the closure of credit markets. 

Asian shares ended lower on Friday as concerns about the global economic outlook grew due to an escalating banking crisis in Spain and political uncertainty in Greece that has fueled concerns of a euro zone break-up. 

Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the country's top lender by market value, said on Thursday its third-quarter cash profit rose 3 percent, in line with expectations, buoyed by lower bad-debt charges despite softer credit demand and higher funding costs.

Asian shares recovered some ground on Thursday from the previous day's sell-off, but investors found little reason to chase risk amid deepening turmoil in Greece and fears of contagion to other stressed euro zone economies.