Tokyo, Japan (BBN)-Markets in Asia surrendered early gains to post a largely negative finish to March.
Comments from Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen about proceeding cautiously on interest rates had given markets a boost for a second day, reports BBC.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 spent much of the day in positive territory. However it later closed down 0.71 per cent at 16,758.
Shares in Sharp lost 4.5 per cent after Taiwan’s Foxconn announced an agreement to buy the Japanese firm.
Foxconn said the deal was worth 389bn yen ($3.5bn; £2.4bn) and would give it a 66 per cent stake in Sharp.
Takata Corp denied a report that the cost of a global recall of faulty airbags could be as much as 2.7 trillion yen ($24bn; £16.7bn).
Its shares lost as much as 20 per cent on Wednesday after the report by Bloomberg news was published. But shares rebounded 6 per cent on Thursday.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index started in positive territory, but finished the session down 0.3 per cent to 1,995.85.
Official data released earlier showed industrial production in Asia’s fourth largest economy had increased by 3.3 per cent from a month earlier, marking the biggest monthly increase since late 2014.
BBN/SK/AD