By V. Phani Kumar
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Asian markets mostly declined Wednesday, with Australian shares slipping as Rio Tinto (RTP:
106.09, -39.90, -27.3%) (AU:RIO:
42.93, -21.89, -33.8%) plunged a day after BHP Billiton (BHP:
38.27, +4.85, +14.5%) (AU:BHP:
27.25, +1.03, +3.9%) dropped its bid for the company, while Japanese shares fell as exporters lost ground on a strengthened yen. Shares of Panasonic Corp. (JP:6752:
, , ) (PC:
14.66, -0.52, -3.4%) fell in Tokyo trading on a report its bid for Sanyo Electric Co. (SANYY:
8.27, +1.17, +16.5%) (JP:6764:
, , ) has met with resistance as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS:
71.78, +4.36, +6.5%) broke off talks, saying Panasonic's 120 yen ($1.26) a share bid for Sanyo was too low. The Nikkei 225 Average fell 1.2% to 8,227.36 and the Topix index gave up 1.8% to 816.38. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.5% to 3,604.40 and New Zealand's NZX 50 index dropped 0.1% to 2,632.70, while South Korea's Kospi jumped 2.7% to 1,009.66.
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