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Big banks lead Japan's decline
TOKYO, Japan -- Asian stocks closed lower on Monday, with Japanese banks down heavily on fresh concerns about the financial system. South Korea fell almost 2.4 percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 average dipped below 8000 for the first time in two weeks, before recovering a little to close 0.96 percent lower at 8039.13. The broader Topix slipped 1.06 percent to 810.49. Fifth-ranked bank Resona Holdings finished down 17.2 percent to 48 yen after it was forced to seek a $17 billion government bailout at the weekend. (Full story) South Korea fared worst in the region, with a fall of 2.37 percent in the Kospi to 596.36 after a bribery scandal broke involving the CEO of industry heavyweight Korea Gas. (Full story) Taiwan's Taiex lost about 0.65 percent on tech concerns. Singapore's Straits Times index slipped 0.92 percent lower after the island-state narrowly failed to get off the World Health Organization list of SARS-affected regions. (Full story) Hong Kong's Hang Seng finished virtually flat, off 0.06 percent at 9087.37. Australia's S&P/ASX200 showed a relatively modest decline of 0.09 percent to 2948.6, while New Zealand's Top 50 lost 0.58 percent to 2009.63. On the currency front, the U.S. dollar has slipped further against the yen and to a four-year low against the euro following remarks by U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow after the weekend G7 meeting in France. (Full story) The dollar traded at 115.15 yen in Tokyo late on Monday, its lowest in two years. A weaker dollar hurts Japanese exporters. In Tokyo, bank stocks were among the biggest losers. Apart from Resona's plunge, Mizuho was down almost 8 percent to 68,200 yen, UFJ fell 3.7 percent to 104,000 yen and SMFG was off almost 5 percent to 193,000 yen. MTFG fell a relatively restrained 1.57 percent to 438,000 yen. The Japanese government agreed Saturday to use an estimated 2 trillion yen ($17 billion) of public money to rescue Resona Bank, after its capital adequacy ratio fell below minimum requirements. In the tech sector, there were heavy falls for Fujitsu, down 4.4 percent, and NEC, down 3.2 percent. Toshiba, Kyocera, Matsushita Electric Industrial and Mitsubishi Electric also ended in the red. But consumer electronics leader Sony recovered from early falls to close 0.34 percent higher at 2930 yen and Canon rose 0.86 percent to 4710 yen. The market's biggest stock, mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo, finished 1.95 percent lower at 251,000 yen. On Monday it announced international roaming for its 3G service from June 1. (Full story) Among carmakers, Nissan ended just in the red, while there were modest gains for Honda and Toyota. In Seoul, Hyundai Motor dropped 4 percent and SK Telecom was down more than 2.5 percent. Market heavyweight Samsung Electronics ended 1.95 percent lower at 301,000 won and steelmaker Posco was flat at 106,500 won. Big banks Kookmin, Shinhan and Chohung were all in the red as part of a broad decline. Korea Gas finished down 3.04 percent to 27,150 won after the company confirmed its CEO Kim Myung Kyu had been taken into custody over bribery allegations. In Australia, media group News Corp lost 1.91 percent to A$11.30 and Commonwealth Bank fell 1.19 percent to A$26.50. But there were gains for Westpac Bank, telco Telstra, airline Qantas and resources group Rio Tinto. Troubled insurer and funds manager AMP was down again, losing another 0.95 percent to A$5.20. In Hong Kong, blue-chip bank HSBC finished with a gain of almost 1 percent at HK$90.00. But some big-caps ended in the red, with falls of 2.11 percent for China Mobile and 0.66 percent for Hutchison Whampoa. PCCW was flat at HK$5.35. Property stocks were weaker. In Taiwan, the Taiex finished at 4255.80, off 0.65 percent, with a fall of almost 2 percent for chip foundry UMC to T$20.30. But larger rival TSMC crept into the black at T$48.90, while Formosa Plastic was down about half a percent. In Singapore, there were falls for leading bank DBS (down 1.06 percent to S$9.30) and United Overseas Bank (down 0.94 percent) after the government released first-quarter GDP figures Monday morning. (Full story) SingPost topped the actives hitting a high of S$0.645 before ending 0.8 percent lower. The Straits Times index finished the day at 1,292.89 points. In New Zealand, Telecom NZ and Carter Holt Harvey ended in the red, but Air New Zealand closed unchanged at NZ$0.44. Asia's movements follow declines in New York on Friday, where downbeat economic reports and Dell's disappointing outlook weighed on the market. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.4 percent to 8678.97 and the Nasdaq lost 0.8 percent, to 1,538.53.
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