Asian traders turned an emphatic "thumbs-down" on the stimulus package presented this week for the U.S. economy.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 emerged from a national holiday on the downside, falling 240.58 or 3.03% Thursday, to close at 7,705.36.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Ltd., Japan’s biggest lender, lost 3.5% as U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he needs time to work out details of the bank-rescue plan unveiled on Tuesday. Daikin Industries Ltd., the biggest Japanese maker of air conditioners, slumped 5.6% after cutting its profit forecast.
Toyota Motor Corp., which makes 37% of its sales in North America, dropped 2.9%. Daikin fell 5.6% after cutting its profit forecast by 59% for the year ending March 31 as the slumping global economy dragged sales lower.
Hong Hong's Hang Seng Index also displayed nerves over the package, tumbling 310.91 or 2.3% to 13,228.30.
Governments around the world are stepping up efforts to revive global growth that the International Monetary Fund predicted two weeks ago will grind almost to a halt this year. The Bank of Korea cut its benchmark interest rate today to a record-low 2% to revive an economy headed for the first recession in more than a decade.
James Hardie, the biggest seller of home siding in the U.S., surged 11% on Australian market.
The company today said it’s comfortable with the middle of the range of analysts’ forecasts for full-year net operating profit excluding asbestos payments and other items of $91 million and $110 million U.S.
Leighton surged 6.1% even after saying first-half profit plunged 56% amid investment writedowns. The figure beat the company’s Jan. 6 forecast for earnings.
Australian stocks rose as the January job increase reported by the country’s statistics bureau beat the decline of 18,000 economists in a Bloomberg survey estimated. The jobless rate rose to 4.8% from 4.5% as more people looked for work.
After markets closed, a vote to pass a $48-billion Australian ($28-billion U.S.) spending package was tied in the Australian Senate, meaning automatic defeat of the legislation aimed at heading off Australia’s first recession in 18 years.
CHINA
China State Shipbuilding Co. surged 10% in Shanghai on government support for shipyards. Guangzhou Shipyard International Co. climbed 10%. The government banned construction of new shipyards for three years and said it will urge banks to boost trade financing.
China’s Shanghai Composite Index shed 12.80 points, or 0.6% to 2,318.34
Elsewhere:
Singapore’s Straits Times Index lost 37.01 points, or 2.2%, to 1,721.97
Taiwan’s Taiex Index slid 109.53 points or 2.4%, to 4,466.42
South Korea’s Kospi lost 10.34 points or 0.9% to 1,179.84
New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index bucked the trend, gaining 19.92 points or 0.7% to 2,750.15
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index also advanced, by 39.90 points or 1.2% to 3,514.30
