Asia markets offered a generally weak performance Tuesday, with most major indexes ending lower on euro-zone debt anxieties.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index fell 111.58 points, or 1.3%, to 8,655.51
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index crept ahead but 0.58 points, to 19,678.50
The moves followed a positive session for U.S. stocks, amid expectations that Greece would receive its next tranche of bailout funds.
But European concerns remained, with Italian bond yields pushing to euro-era highs amid calls for the resignation of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and ahead of a key budget vote due later Tuesday.
Separately, European Union finance ministers will reportedly approve Greece’s sixth eight-billion-euro ($11-billion U.S.) tranche of its current rescue package as early as today, provided the country’s new national unity government agrees to the broad terms settled in October, via a written statement of intent.
Exporters were among the leading decliners in Tokyo against the backdrop of European uncertainty, as well as Japan’s stubbornly high currency.
On Tuesday afternoon in East Asia, the dollar bought ¥78.02, down marginally from ¥78.07 in late Monday trade in North America.
Sony Ltd. lost 4.1%, Nikon Corp. traded down 1.7%, and Panasonic Corp. declined 3.3%.
Many Asian chip makers extended losses from the previous session, with investors taking little comfort from Deutsche Bank research Monday saying falling prices for dynamic random-access memory are showing signs of bottoming out.
The world’s number-one memory maker Samsung Electronics Ltd. dropped 2.3% in Seoul, while rival Hynix Semiconductor Inc. gave up 4.6%. Over in Tokyo, chip maker Elpida Memory Inc. tumbled 10.4%.
Also in Japan, shares in Olympus Corp. plunged 29% after revelations Tuesday that its senior management had covered up investment losses, an admission that could lead to legal charges and a delisting of the stock.
Olympus President Shuichi Takayama said the company would do "its utmost" to prevent a delisting.
Shares of Toyota Motor Corp. lost 1.7% ahead of the company’s earnings announcement.
After the close of trade, Toyota said its first-half net profit fell 72% from the year-earlier period and declined to give a full-year forecast due to uncertainty from catastrophic flooding in Thailand, which has affected the auto maker’s production line.
Banking stocks helped to limit losses in Hong Kong, with Bank of Communications Co. rising 3.1%, Bank of China Ltd. up 1.1%, and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. higher by 0.8%.
But sizeable drops for some key Hang Seng Index components pushed the benchmark to a flat close, with Tencent Holdings Ltd. losing 5.5%, while China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd. and Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. each lost 5%.
In Sydney trading, miners were among the top advancers, as iron-ore major Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. added 2.9%, Rio Tinto Ltd. added 1.4%, and gold producer Newcrest Mining Ltd. rose 1% as benchmark Comex gold futures moved back above $1,790 a troy ounce overnight.
In other markets;
Shanghai’s CSI 300 index skidded 8.54 points, or 0.3%, to 2,727.21
Taiwan’s Taiex Index gave back 20.93 points, or 0.3%, to 7,600.79
Korea’s Kospi Index slid 15.96 points, or 0.8%, to 1,903.14
Singapore’s Straits Times Index progressed 18.28 points, or 0.6%, to 2,866.52
New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index tacked on 9.05 points, or 0.3%, to 3,351.24
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index regained 20.40 points, or 0.5%, to 4,292.80
