By V. Phani Kumar
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Asian shares were mostly lower Friday after a sell-off on Wall Street in the wake of weak U.S. economic indicators. Persistent yen strength also hurt Japanese exporters, while a fall in commodity prices hit resource stocks across the region. The Nikkei Stock Average fell 1.8% to 9,192.07 in Tokyo afternoon trading, with exporters paced by a 3.4% drop in Advantest Corp. (ATE 20.52, +0.40, +1.99%) (JP:6857 1,722, -57.00, -3.20%) and a 2.7% loss for Nikon Corp. (JP:7731 1,497, -38.00, -2.48%) (NINOY 177.02, -0.23, -0.13%) . Among the region's commodity-related stocks, BHP Billiton Ltd. (AU:BHP 37.90, -0.40, -1.04%) (BHP 67.35, -0.83, -1.22%) shed 1.3%, extending losses amid its hostile bid for Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, and Rio Tinto Ltd. (AU:RIO 71.58, -1.60, -2.19%) (RTP 51.53, -1.18, -2.24%) lost 2.7% in Sydney. Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. (HK:2600 6.61, -0.13, -1.93%) (ACH 21.20, +0.14, +0.66%) sank 2.7% and PetroChina Co. (PTR 110.84, -0.05, -0.05%) (HK:857 8.68, -0.05, -0.57%) lost 1% in Hong Kong. Inpex Corp. (JP:1605 398,500, -6,000, -1.48%) (IPXHF 7,125, 0.00, 0.00%) fell 1.4% in Tokyo, while Cairn India Ltd. gave up 0.9% and Sterlite Industries Ltd. (SLT 13.60, -0.01, -0.07%) lost 1.2% in Mumbai trading. In wider markets, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropped by 1.4%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was lower by 0.7%, India's Sensex lost 0.3%, China's Shanghai Composite Index gave up 1.3%, and South Korea's Kospi fell 0.6%. |
