Markets in Asia-Pacific region followed Wall Street lower on Tuesday

Tuesday, markets across the Asia-Pacific region followed Wall Street lower as concerns about the U.S. banking sector and pessimism about earnings tempered risk appetite. The focus was back on the state of the economic recovery in the world's biggest economy after Bank of America marked up protection for bad loans.


The Japanese market fell sharply as financials came under intense selling pressure and reports that Toyota Motor Corp.'s fiscal 2009 domestic output may hit a 31-year-low hurt investor sentiment.

The Nikkei 225 index recouped some of its early losses and closed at 8,711, down 213 points or 2.39%, while the broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange moved down 18 points or 2.07% to 831. Stocks declined mostly across the board, although stocks in the retail, information and communication and land transport sectors bucked the declining trend.

Toyota Motor fell nearly 4% on reports that its domestic output will fall to 2.8 million units in the current business year ending next March. Honda tumbled 4.88%, Suzuki fell 3.49%, Nissan slipped 0.20% and Mazda drifted down 2.69%.

Sony Corp retreated 4.14% on the strengthening of the yen and a cut in its rating to "hold" by Nikko Citigroup. Trading house Mitsui & Co. slumped 6.46% after oil and copper prices fell. Advantest fell 4.81%, Tokyo Electron closed down 0.94%, Kyocera moved down 2.30% and Fujitsu declined 1.21%

The Australian market tumbled, led down by banks and miners, as a slump on Wall Street on concerns about bad debts on bank balance sheets and the Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens' statement that Australia was in a recession weighed on sentiment.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed at 3,677, down 92 points or 2.43% and the All Ordinaries index fell 89 points or 2.4% to 3,633. Banking stocks were hit hard. National Australia Bank tumbled 4.49%, ANZ fell nearly 4%, Commonwealth Bank declined 1.84% and Westpac Banking moved down 2.57%.

Among miners, BHP Billiton fell 4.01%, Rio Tinto tumbled 5.82% and Iluka Resources moved down 3.43%. The new chairman of Rio Tinto Jan du Plessis said Rio's board was committed to the group's proposed $19.5 billion tie up with China's state-owned Chinalco

On the economic front, the Reserve Bank of Australia's board members said that the outlook is weaker for near-term demand, but they still believe a recovery is likely by the end of 2009, minutes from the board's April 7 monetary policy meeting revealed on Tuesday.

The South Korean market closed flat and as gains in shipbuilders and technology shares offset losses in the financial sector. The benchmark KOSPI recouped all its early losses to finish at 1,337, up a mere 0.03 percent or 0.42 points. Volume was at 629.61 million shares worth 6.4 trillion won (US$4.7 billion) and advancers outnumbered decliners by 412 to 398.

Shipbuilders outperformed on optimism that South Korean companies would win orders from Brazil's Petrobras by as early as May. Daewoo Shipbuilding rose 1.47%, Samsung Heavy Industries advanced 3.41% and Hyundai Heavy added 0.47%.

Steel maker POSCO fell 2.30% on profit taking, market heavyweight Samsung Electronics moved down 0.17%, automaker Hyundai Motor declined 2.12%, Kia Motors fell 2.14% and oil stock SK drifted down 2.42%.

After a weak start, India's benchmark Sensex recouped most of its losses on the emergence of fresh buying by funds as the central bank cut short-term lending (repo) and borrowing (reverse repo) rates by 25 basis points each. The BSE Sensex ended at 10,898, down 81 points or 0.74%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng opened notably lower and moved sideways for the rest of the session. The index ended down 465.02 points or 2.95% at 15,286. A majority of the stocks declined in the session. Property stocks declined sharply, with Sino Land, New World Development and Hang Lung Property leading the slide.

Among the other markets in the region, China's Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.85%, Singapore's STI Straits Times index moved down 1.37%, but Taiwan's TWII Weighed index closed up 1.73%.