ASIA STOCKS tumble, weigh on Asia

Chinese stocks tumbled Monday on concerns Beijing won’t ease policies despite slowing growth, with the losses also dragging on other regional markets.

The Shanghai Composite  fell 1.6%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index  dropped 1.9%, with the retreat also coming amid caution a day ahead of the release of China’s monthly inflation data.

South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.9%, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.6%.

In Japan, the Nikkei Stock Average  gave up 0.2%.

Financial and property sector shares were hit in Hong Kong, with China Construction Bank Corp. sliding 2.2%, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. skidding 2.5%, and China Resources Land Ltd.   falling 2.2%.

The resource sector also came under added selling pressure as the dollar strengthened after the U.S. upbeat jobs report Friday, hurting commodity prices. On mainland Chinese bourses, shares of Shandong Gold-Mining Co.  lost 6.6%, and those of Jiangxi Copper Co. fell 3.8%. Coal miner China Shenhua Energy Co.  plunged 8.2%, also hurt as the stock traded without rights to a dividend.

Also on the downside, major miners fell in Sydney, with BHP Billiton Ltd. dropping 1.8%, and Rio Tinto Ltd.   losing 1.9%.

Some energy names also retreated, as PetroChina Co. dropped 1.7% in Hong Kong, and Oil Search Ltd.  slipped 1% in Sydney, although U.S. benchmark crude-oil prices topped $103 a barrel.

Several Japanese exporters declined against the backdrop of Chinese economic worries, even as the U.S. dollar extended gains above ¥101 to weigh on the broader market. Honda Motor Co. fell 1.2%, and Sony Corp. declined 0.9%.

Japanese power utilities rose, however, with Hokkaido Electric Power Co. gaining 1.1%, and Kansai Electric Power Co. advancing 0.8%. A Nikkei newspaper Friday named the two as being among four major utilities that plan to apply to regulators to confirm that 10 of their nuclear reactors were safe enough to restart operations.

Data released earlier on Monday showed the country’s current-account surplus narrowed to ¥540.7 billion ($5.33 billion) in May, missing expectations, though marking the first back-to-back surplus in more than two years.

08.07.2013

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