(RTTNews) - Asian stock markets slumped on Tuesday, commodities lost ground and the euro fell to a four-month trough against the dollar, as fears that the eurozone debt crisis will spread to the much larger economies of Italy and Spain and lingering concerns about a slower global economic recovery curbed appetite for risky assets. EU finance ministers promised to provide cheaper loans, longer debt maturities and a more flexible rescue fund to help Greece and other EU debtors in a bid to stop the debt crisis engulfing Italy and Spain, but set no deadline. Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager, meanwhile, reportedly declined to rule out the possibility of a selective default by Greece and said the eurogroup now has more options to deal with Greece's debt problems. Expectations for a fairly strong U.S. earnings season were clouded partially after Alcoa reported second-quarter earnings that missed analyst estimates. Japan's Nikkei average lost 1.4 percent, its biggest fall in a month, as financial stocks lost ground on fresh worries about contagion of the European debt crisis. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange closed 1.5 percent lower. In the financial sector, Mizuho Financial Group fell 1.5 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group lost 2.1 percent and Nomura Holdings closed down 3.3 percent. The yen's continued strength against the euro battered exporter shares. Canon declined 1.8 percent, Toyota Motor shed 1.9 percent, Mazda Motor declined 2.8 percent and Sony tumbled 3 percent. Isuzu Motors bucked the downward trend to end half a percent higher on a brokerage upgrade. Inpex Corp, Japan's largest oil and gas developer, slumped 4.6 percent and Japan Petroleum Exploration lost 2.5 percent after crude prices fell further in Asian trading on Tuesday, weighed down by demand worries amid debt-contagion fears in Europe and apprehensions about the state of the global economy. Hitachi Construction Machinery plunged 4.2 percent after reporting a 36 percent fall in the June sales of hydraulic shovels in China. Shares of Elpida Memory, the world's No.3 maker of DRAM chips, fell 1.7 percent after the company said it plans to raise nearly 80 billion yen through new shares and convertible bonds. China's Shanghai Composite index closed 1.7 percent lower, its biggest drop in four months, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index tumbled 3.1 percent after credit-ratings firm Moody's Investors Service warned about accounting and corporate governance risks at 61 rated Chinese companies. Also, caution prevailed ahead of key data on China's gross domestic product, industrial production and retail sales due to be revealed on Wednesday.

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