|
|
  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japan leads Asian stocks lower
HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Asian stocks drifted to a lower close Tuesday as the region awaits Japan's key policy package on bad loans and deflation. The fall on Wall Street also helped push markets down. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 average closed 0.56 percent lower at 8,708.76. The broader Topix dipped further into the red, off 1.08 percent at 862.73. Japanese carmakers, led by Honda's 13.4 percent fall, were among the heaviest losers, but selected tech stocks enjoyed a bounce ahead of earnings. Mitsubishi Electric jumped 5.9 percent. South Korea's Kospi, which had a blistering run on Monday and spent the first half of Tuesday in the black, eased later to close 0.73 percent down at 673.18. There were losses in most other Asian markets, with Australia, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong all down about 1 percent or more. New Zealand gained 0.2 percent and Mumbai is trading about 1 percent higher heading into the afternoon. The declines in Asia came after Wall Street's rally broke with a 0.9 percent slide in the Dow Jones industrial average, which ended Monday at 8,368.96. U.S. techs were down a little more, with Nasdaq falling 1.15 percent. (Full story) Japan responds to earningsIn Japan, investors awaited the release late Wednesday of the Koizumi government's deflation-fighting package and an associated plan to tackle the bank's massive pile of bad loans.
But bank stocks themselves showed some resilience Tuesday. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp jumped 5.6 percent to 490 yen and Mizuho Holdings, the world's biggest bank by assets, put on 0.62 percent to 163,000 yen. UFJ Holdings was steady at 155,000 yen, while the remaining member of the Big Four, Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group, dipped 0.74 percent to 800,000 yen. There was also a reaction to a string of earnings. No. 2 carmaker Honda Motor plunged 13.44 percent to 4,380 yen, after giving a cautious forecast on Monday for the rest of the year. (Full story) Toyota Motor, the largest car producer in Japan, fell 4.15 percent to 3,000 yen and third-ranked Nissan lost 3.5 percent to 955 yen. Along with Mitsubishi Electric, tech gainers included Fujitsu, up 3.5 percent to 443 yen ahead of its earnings, and Toshiba, up 3.4 percent to 305 yen. (Full story) But Sony Corp., which reported on Monday, lost 1.28 percent to 5,420 yen after saying it returned to a profit on a rebound in its electronics division. (Full story) Trade was light in Tokyo ahead of the bank report, due on Wednesday evening. Japan's jobless rate remained steady at 5.4 percent, close to a record, for September. (Full story) Australian crops hit by droughtIn Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.8 percent to 3,011.3, mainly in response to Wall Street. Market heavyweight News Corp. lost 1.2 percent to A$10.75, with Telstra off 0.63 percent at A$4.76. BHP Billiton dipped 1.13 percent to A$9.64. Australia cut crop forecasts as the country reels from a severe drought. (Full story) That knocked companies such as Wesfarmers, down 2.5 percent to A$25.59. New Zealand's Top 40 came back from the Labour Day holiday with a slight rise, up 0.2 percent to 2,012.74. Telecoms off in Hong KongHong Kong's Hang Seng index lost 1.78 percent to 9,678.78. Mobile phone twins China Mobile and China Unicom led the declines, both off about 3 percent. Some U.S. investment funds are reducing telco exposure ahead of China Telecom's initial public offering in early November. Hong Kong's declines were broad-based. PCCW, which announced about 1,500 of its staff had agreed to work as contractors, dipped 4.1 percent to HK$1.16. (Full story) In Taiwan, the Taiex closed 1.03 percent lower at 4,554.13 after Nasdaq's slip. Textiles and industrial stocks were among the losers. Chip foundry UMC fell 1.55 percent, but its larger rival TSMC closed just in the black, up 0.4 percent to T$46.80. Taiwan's largest personal-computer company, Acer, put on 0.63 percent to T$32.10 after reporting a sharp increase in profit for the first three quarters. (Full story) Korea momentum wanes
In South Korea, the Kospi eased 0.73 percent to 673.18 after Monday's 3.39 percent leap. Samsung Electronics lost 2.2 percent and Hynix Semiconductor tumbled by the daily 15 percent limit. Korea's industrial output rose in September from the previous month, but the gain was muted at just 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted. (Full story) SK Telecom rose 0.66 percent to 229,000 won after the government slapped it with a 30-day ban from signing up new customers, for offering illegal handset subsidies. In Singapore, banking leader DBS Group is down 3.8 percent to S$12.40 near the close, after reporting worse-than-expected third-quarter earnings after the close Monday. (Full story)
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
