Most Asian markets retreated Tuesday, led by a steep fall in Japan, as commodities stocks followed oil prices lower and a bleak outlook for earnings hit exporters such as Sony Corp.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index lost 422.89 points, or 4.79%, to 8,413.91 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slid 303 points, or 2.17%, to settle at 13,668.
On the economic front, Japan's Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday that the country's unadjusted current account surplus for November was 581.2 billion yen, down 65.9% on year. The surplus was 960.5 billion yen in the preceding month of October and 1.7058 trillion yen in November of 2007. The unadjusted trade balance showed a deficit of 93.4 billion yen following a 145.8 billion yen surplus a month earlier and a 907.6 billion yen surplus a year earlier. Exports were down 26.5% on year, marking the largest decline on record, the Ministry said. Imports fell an annual 13.7%.
The Bank of Japan said that Japanese bank lending to banks excluding trusts was up 4.1% on year, up from the 3.6% annual gain in November. Including trusts, lending was up 3.7% on year from the 3.2% annual gain in the previous month. Seasonally adjusted, lending was up 4.6% compared to 4.1% a month earlier. M2 money supply was up 1.8% on year, matching the revised figure from the previous month and beating forecasts for a 1.7% annual jump. M3 money stocks were up 0.8% in December, topping the revised gain of 0.7% in November and also beating forecasts for a 0.6% gain.
Results of the Economy Watchers Survey released by the Japanese Cabinet Office showed that both the current and the outlook indexes fell in the last month of 2008. The current index that measures business-cycle sensitive workers' thoughts on existing economic conditions continued to drop for the tenth straight month in December. The index now stands at 15.9, down from 21 recorded in November. The outlook index fell to 17.6 in December from 24.7 in the preceding month, marking the fourth straight month of declines.
Tech stocks closed sharply lower. Advantest slumped 7.52%, Kyocera shed 5.19% and Tokyo Electron slid 7.21%. Tokyo Electron said that orders for its tools to make semiconductors, flat panel displays and solar panels dropped about 65% in the October-December period from the preceding quarter.
Among export-oriented stocks, Sony shed 8.88%. The Nikkei business daily reported that Sony is expected to report its first full-year operating loss in 14 years, of about 100 billion yen. In October, Sony had forecast an operating profit for the year. Meanwhile, Canon dropped 7.19% after the company's chairman said that year-end holiday sales were disappointing. Komatsu fell 8.64% and Sharp declined 9.19%. Toshiba fell 8.55% after national broadcaster NHK reported that company was set to post its first operating loss in seven years.
Electronics maker Panasonic said it will cut its investment in two new flat-screen TV plants by about $1.5 billion and exit unprofitable businesses amid the global economic slump. The company's stock fell 7.81%.
In the banking space, Mitsubishi UFJ lost 6.24%, Mizuho Financial dropped 8.36%, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial fell 6.98% and Resona Holdings declined 2.81%. Among automakers, Toyota tumbled 6.35%, Honda lost 6.83%, Nissan shed 8.45% and Mazda lost 4.47%.
In the oil sector, Inpex plunged 7.87%, Nippon Oil slid 4.75% and Showa Shell dropped 4.94%. Trading house Mitsubishi slid 7.75%, Mitsui & Co. fell 8.80%, Marubeni tumbled 7.84% and Itochu shed 8.79%.
Elsewhere:
Singapore's Straits Times Index declined 14 points, or 0.81%, to close at 1762.
China's Shanghai Composite Index declined 37 points or 1.95% to end at 1,863.
India's BSE 30 Index lost 39 points, or 0.42% to settle at 9071.
Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index lost 7 points, or 0.48%, to settle at 1,400.
Malaysia's KLSE Composite Index gave away 10 points, or 1.07%, to close at 914.T
Taiwan's Weighted Index advanced 78 points, or 1.76%, to finish at 4,532.
Australia's index slipped 0.8 percent.
with files from other wire services
