Asian shares crumbled Thursday, with resource stocks like Rio Tinto and financials like HSBC Holdings and KB Financial Group hit the hardest as commodity prices retreated and after Wall Street tumbled overnight.
Japan's Nikkei 225 finished down 4.9% to 8,023.31, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped 462 points, or 3.37%
On the economic front, the Cabinet Office reported shortly before the market opened that core machinery orders in Japan declined by a record 16.2% in November, falling much further than the predictions of most economic analysts of a 7.5% decline. The seasonally adjusted decline marked the second straight month of decreases for machinery orders, considered a barometer of future industrial capital investment. In unadjusted terms, November's core machinery orders fell 27.7% from one year earlier.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan said that Japan's domestic corporate goods price index was up 1.1% in December. That was higher than analyst expectations that had forecast an increase of 0.8%, while it was lower than November's 2.8% annual expansion. On a monthly basis, CGPI was down 1.2% versus expectations for a 1.5% decline after a 1.9% fall in the previous month.
Tech stocks closed sharply lower. Advantest slumped 9.75%, Kyocera dipped 7.13% and Tokyo Electron shed 7.85%. Among export-oriented stocks, Sony slid 5.22%, Canon tumbled 5.94%, Sharp lost 5.49% and Komatsu dipped 5.00%. Hitachi said Wednesday that it will spend $300 million to buy majority stakes in its affiliates Hitachi Koki and Hitachi Kokusai. However, the company's stock lost 2.82%. NEC Corp. dropped 4.66% as the company said it would cut 1200 dispatch workers in Japan by the end of March.
Banking stocks and auto makers also tumbled. Mitsubishi UFJ lost 1.53%, Mizuho Financial tumbled 5.51%, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial shed 4.27% and Resona Holdings declined 1.82%. Among automakers, Toyota declined 2.74%, Honda slid 4.27% and Mazda shed 7.02%. Nissan lost 3.38%. Media reports said the company is expected to post an operating loss on a consolidated basis for the fiscal year ending in March.
In the oil sector, Inpex lost 4.13%, Nippon Oil declined 2.01% and Showa Shell dropped 4.47%. Trading house Mitsubishi dipped 4.26%, Marubeni lost 2.42%, Itochu gave away 2.71% and Mitsui & Co. slipped 2.99%.
Among shipping stocks, Nippon Yusen shed 5.37%, Mitsui O.S.K. tumbled 7.28% and Kawasaki Kisen dropped 7.37%.
Elsewhere:
Singapore's Straits Times Index lost 61 points, or 3.44%, to close at 1,704
China's Shanghai Composite Index eased 9 points, or 0.45% to settle at 1,920
India's BSE 30 Index dropped 324 points, or 3.45%, to end at 9,047 and Taiwan's Weighted Index shed 201 points, or 4.44%, to finish at 4,321.
Malaysia's KLSE Composite Index gave away 16 points, or 1.75% to close at 897
Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index lost 43 points, or 3.13% to end at 1343.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 Index shed 157.50 points, or 4.27%, to close at 3529.50
In New Zealand, the benchmark NZX 50 Index declined 43.95 points, or 1.58% to close at 2,742.84
With files from other sources
