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Asian stocks follow U.S. into red


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Honda and other Japanese automakers closed lower on Tuesday.

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(CNN) -- Asian shares have closed lower Tuesday following a sharp selloff on Wall Street amid signs al Qaeda was behind last week's Madrid bombings.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 average, which rose almost 1.4 percent on Monday, finished down 0.67 percent to 11,242.29.

The broader Topix index ended 0.35 percent lower at 1120.96.

Japanese automakers and tech-related stocks led the declines.

Markets in South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan were also lower as investors in Asia matched wariness in Europe and the United States.

Australia finished just in the black, up about 0.1 percent.

Initially, Taiwan looked to be staging a mild recovery from Monday's big fall, but eased to close 0.7 percent lower.

After more signs emerged that al Qaeda may have been behind the deadly bombings in Madrid last Thursday, Wall Street's tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged 2.3 percent Monday and the Dow lost 1.34 percent. (Full story)

Earlier in Europe, markets slipped to their lowest levels this year, with the FTSE100 giving up 1.2 percent and Spain's IBEX-35 falling more than 4 percent. (Full story)

In Tokyo's automotive sector, Honda was down 2 percent to 4700 yen, Nissan was off about 1.8 percent to 1181 yen and Toyota finished 2 percent lower to 3790 yen.

Consumer electronics leader Sony gave up 1.4 percent to 4270 yen and Canon was down about 1.5 percent to 5200 yen, despite upgrading its profit forecasts for the March quarter.

Some other tech-related stocks posted heavier falls, with Hitachi, Fujitsu, NEC and Toshiba all about 2 percent down and Mitsubishi Electric losing 3 percent.

Japanese banks were mainly firmer, though gains were relatively modest. UFJ rose 0.6 percent and Mizuho put on 0.25 percent.

As expected, the central Bank of Japan left its monetary policy unchanged Tuesday. (Full story)

The dollar weakened to be back below 110 yen, trading at 109.87 yen late in the Asia day on expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will keep interest rates unchanged at 1 percent later this week.

Big mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo closed 0.45 percent lower to 223,000 yen.

In Seoul, the Kospi ended 0.25 percent lower to 850.13, continuing the market's fall in the wake of last week's parliamentary vote for President Roh Moo-hyun's impeachment.

The Kospi is now down about 7 percent since hitting a 23-month high of 910.67 on March 8.

Samsung Electronics finished 0.57 percent higher at 528,000 won and SK Telecom put on almost 1 percent.

But big exporter Hyundai Motor eased 0.2 percent to 49,250 won and Shinhan financial group slipped more than 3 percent.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 finished 0.09 percent higher to 3414.6 after dipping below 3400 earlier in the day.

Media group News Corp. was down 1.8 percent to A$11.92 after 17-percent shareholder Liberty Media Corp of the United States announced plans to spin off its international businesses to shareholders. (Full story)

Resources leader BHP Billiton ended 1.3 percent lower to A$12.17. But Telstra rose 0.8 percent.

Singapore's Straits Times index is 0.75 percent lower at 1824.63, with SingTel off almost 1.8 percent to S$2.24. Big bank DBS is flat at S$13.90.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index is down 0.5 percent to 12,858.45.

Big bank HSBC, conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa and telco PCCW are all about 1 percent lower.

Taiwan's Taiex closed 0.7 percent lower at 6589.72. Market heavyweight TSMC was down 0.8 percent at T$60.50, while UMC fell 0.65 percent to T$30.80.

In New Zealand, the Top 50 ended just in the red, down 0.08 percent to 2502.31. Last week the central bank left rates on hold, as expected. (Full story)


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