Most Asian markets ended down Thursday as the U.S. Senate's approval for a $700 billion financial-rescue package failed to ease fears about a slowing global economy, while Japanese automakers such as Toyota Motor Corp. were hit especially hard by a dismal U.S. sales report for September.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index shed 213.5 points or 1.9% to close at 11,154.76 while the Hang Seng Index finished 1.1% higher at 18,211.11.
On the economic front, the monetary base in Japan climbed 0.9% on year in September to 88.37 trillion yen, the Bank of Japan said Thursday. That followed a 0.2% annual decline in August and a 0.7% fall in July. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the monetary base soared 15.8% on year in September, standing at 89.398 trillion yen. That followed a 5.7% annual increase in August.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance said that Japanese investors purchased a net 114.8 billion yen in foreign stocks for the week ended September 26. They also bought a net 361.0 billion yen in foreign bonds and notes during the same period. Meanwhile, foreign investors sold a net 236.8 billion yen in Japanese stocks, and they also unloaded a net 1.1 trillion yen in Japanese bonds and notes.
Mining, iron and steel, and machinery stocks led the decliners.
Machinery maker Komatsu plunged 10.7% to its lowest in three years and Hitachi Construction tumbled 14.7%. Steelmakers closed weak, with Nippon Steel plunging 8.5%. Oil and gas miner Inpex Holdings plummeted 8.5%, Nippon Oil fell 5.4% and Nippon Mining Holding lost 5.7%. Among other commodity-related stocks, Mitsui & Co shed 7.5% and Mitsubishi Corp plunged 8.7%.
Banks and export-oriented stocks also closed lower. Mitsubishi UFJ dropped 1.4%, Mizuho Financial fell 2.2%, and Sumitomo Mitsui declined 2.6%. Top brokerage Nomura Holdings plummeted 4.1%. Sony tumbled 5.9% and Nikon fell 3.2%.
Auto stocks fell after major automakers reported lower U.S. sales for September. Honda Motor dropped 4.5%, Toyota declined 3.4%, Nissan plunged 4.0% and Mazda slumped 11.8%.
Among tech stocks, Fujitsu said that it is in talks with U.S.-based Western Digital Corp. on the sale of its hard-disk drive business. The company's stock jumped 4.7%. Meanwhile, Advantest slid 6.9%, Fanuc fell 4.0%, and Kyocera slipped 0.6%.
Elswhere:
South Korea's Kospi lost 1.4% to 1,419.65.
Taiwan's Taiex gave up 1.1% to 5,703.72.
Singapore's Straits Times Index also wavered between gains and losses, and was recently up 0.3% at 2,364.79.
New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index closed up 44.68 points or 1.38% at 3,232.64.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.7% to 4,761.10.
with files from other wire services
