Asian stocks fall on US, Japan economic woes

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Asian stocks fall on US, Japan economic woes

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Japan's industrial output dropped a seasonally adjusted 2.6 percent last month.

28 December,2011 11:34 am

Asian stocks markets fell Wednesday, with trading thinned by year-end holidays and mixed economic news out of the US and Japan.Benchmark oil remained above $101 per barrel while the dollar strengthened against the euro but fell against the yen.Japans Nikkei 225 index fell marginally to 8,430.32. Hong Kongs Hang Seng Index fell 0.7 percent to 18,503.67, while South Koreas Kospi lost 1.1 percent to 1,822.73. Australias S&P ASX 200 lost 1.2 percent to 4,091.30. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan and Indonesia were also lower.Bucking the trend was the New Zealand NZX 50, which rose 0.7 percent to 3,236.90. Falling between the Christmas holiday and New Years, trading throughout the region was generally light.Japans industrial output dropped a seasonally adjusted 2.6 percent last month the first decline in two months. But the negative news was mitigated by expectations of rebounding manufacturing and production this month and next, which helped to keep stock market losses minimal.In mainland China, investors were dumping shares because Beijing has failed to take steps they expected to stimulate slowing economic growth, said Peter Lai, investment manager for DBS Vickers in Hong Kong.Some investors believed there would be a reduction in interest rates or the bank reserve ratio. But this hasnt happened. That is why people are dumping shares, Lai said.Lai said some investors are moving money from China to the United States or Europe on hopes for better economic conditions and bigger returns.The Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.7 percent to 2,151.97. The smaller Shenzhen Composite Index sank 1.8 percent 838.25.Tokyo Electric Power dropped 12.3 percent, a day after Japanese Industry Minister Yukio Edano suggested that the embattled utility be put under temporary state control and warned the company against resorting to electricity bill hikes.TEPCO operates the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which was heavily damaged in the March earthquake and tsunami, and owes massive compensation payments to people and companies harmed by a nuclear disaster at the plant.Hong Kong-listed property shares also slumped. China Vanke Co. fell 2 percent and China Overseas Land & Investment slid 3 percent.China Mengniu Dairy, the countrys biggest dairy company, plummeted 22.6 percent in Hong Kong after acknowledging that a cancer-causing toxin had been found in milk produced by the company. Mengniu apologized and said no tainted milk had made it to the market. The government blamed the problem on bad feed given to cows.On Wall Street on Tuesday, the Dow Jones lost less than 0.1 percent to close at 12,291.35. The S&P 500 was up marginally to 1,265.43. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.3 percent to 2,625.20.U.S. consumer confidence surged to an eight-month high, but home prices fell in 19 of the 20 cities tracked by the Standard & Poors/Case-Shiller index. That report dampened investors enthusiasm about a jump in consumer confidence to the highest level since April.Benchmark crude oil rose 2 cents to $101.36 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.66 to finish at $101.34 per barrel on the Nymex on Tuesday.In currency trading, the euro fell to $1.3062 from $1.3069 late Tuesday in New York. The euro has been weak because of worries about Europes government debt crisis. It is still trading just above an 11-month low of $1.2943 reached on Dec. 14.The dollar fell to 77.76 yen from 77.85 yen.