Most Asian stock markets declined Wednesday as renewed concern about the health of European banks hurt sentiment, pushing the yen to a new 15-year high against the U.S. dollar and dragging Japanese shares sharply lower.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index stumbled 201.40 points, or 2.2%, to 9,024.60
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index collapsed 312.93 points, or 1.5%, to 21,088.86
Financial shares around the region lost ground, tracking losses in their European and U.S. counterparts, as investors' attention refocused on the fiscal health of various European nations, especially Ireland, Portugal and Greece. The Wall Street Journal Tuesday reported that stress tests of European banks earlier this year understated some lenders' holdings of potentially risky government debt.
National Australia Bank dropped 1.8% in Sydney, Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group shed 1.7% in Tokyo, HSBC Holdings' Hong Kong-listed shares shed 1.3% and South Korea's Shinhan Financial Group fell 2%.
In Japan, sentiment toward the nation's exporters soured as the yen soared to a new 15-year high versus the U.S. dollar before giving back some ground in late Asian trading.
The dollar hit a fresh 15-year low of 83.34 yen, and was at 83.63 yen, compared with 83.80 yen late in New York trade. The euro was at 105.91 yen versus 106.33 yen in New York and at $1.2663 U.S. against $1.2687 U.S.
The yen rallied despite Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda's comments Wednesday that the government will take "decisive" steps against the rising yen, if necessary, and that those measures included foreign-exchange market intervention. It was the first time Noda has mentioned that currency-market intervention was a policy option.
Pacing the decline, Toyota Motor Corp. shed 2.1%, Honda Motor lost 2.5% and Sony Corp. gave up 2.2%.
Advantest dropped 4.4%, hit by the stronger yen and a Nikkei report that the company is likely to book an operating profit exceeding 10 billion yen ($119 million U.S.) for the current fiscal year.
That's below the latest Quick analyst consensus forecast of around 17 billion yen. The report couldn't be verified.
Mining stocks also dropped in Sydney after most regional markets retreated, though some defensive sector stocks advanced.
BHP Billiton fell 1.4% and Woodside Petroleum gave up 1.4%. But Foster's Group climbed 4.5% after rejecting an unsolicited bid for its wine assets from a private-equity firm, which valued the unit at 2.3 billion to 2.7 billion Australian dollars ($2.07 billion U.S. to $2.43 billion U.S.). The company is working on a demerger of its beer and wine divisions.
Telstra climbed 0.7% in anticipation of National Broadband Network-related payments after Australia's Labour government retained power Tuesday.
He said the market was being restrained by selling from Asian funds making room for China Mobile shares after Vodafone Group sold its 3.2% stake in the Chinese telecom company for 4.3 billion pounds ($6.6 billion U.S.). Shares of China Mobile, a heavyweight in the Hang Seng Index, dropped 3.8% on the news, weighing on the broad market.
South Korean shares dropped on selling in Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor, after UBS Investment Research downgraded the stocks to neutral from buy, citing a deteriorating outlook for semiconductor memory chips.
Samsung Electronics dropped 2.2% after its chip division chief said Tuesday that an oversupply in dynamic random access memory chips -- known as DRAM chips and a key computer component -- may occur early next year if global demand for personal computers slows further. Chip maker Hynix Semiconductor fell 3.5%.
Hyundai Motor Co. added 2.4% on improved domestic and U.S. market shares in August, while Kia Motors Corp.tacked on 2.3% after reporting strong domestic sales of new models.
Elsewhere;
Shanghai’s CSI 300 Index slipped 2.14 points to 2,980.97
Singapore’s Straits Times Index declined 24.67 points, or 0.8%, to 3,011.42
Korea’s Kospi index backpedaled 8.52 points, or 0.5% to 1,779.22
Taiwan’s Taiex Index slid 33.09 points, or 0.4%, to 7,851.31
New Zealand’s NZX index moved 12.96 points, or 0.4%, lower to 3,161.18
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 stepped back 36 points, or 0.8%, to 4,537.20
