Shares in Tokyo were hammered Wednesday as disappointment over the Bank of Japan’s policy announcements a day earlier spilled over to send the yen higher, hitting exporters particularly hard.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 Index plummeted 222.94 points, or 2.1%, to 10,486.99, suffering its third consecutive drop, after the country’s central bank on Tuesday refrained from setting a timeframe to achieve its 2% inflation target, and didn’t increase the size of its asset purchases this year.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index shaved off 23.89 points, or 0.1%, to 23,635.10
Although the Bank of Japan said that under an "open-ended" asset purchase program, it will buy additional securities worth around ¥10 trillion ($112 billion U.S) in 2014, that was seen as inadequate by several analysts.
In 2012 alone, the central bank had increased the size of its asset purchases five times, typically in installments of ¥10 trillion.
The disappointment served to push the dollar, which had topped ¥90 earlier in the week, to slip as low as ¥88.03 Wednesday, weighing down exporters.
Nikon Corp. lost 3%, Nissan Motor Co. dropped 2.8% and Mazda Motor Corp. gave up 3.7%.
The disappointment also rubbed off elsewhere in the region, as hopes that an aggressive monetary stimulus from Bank of Japan would provide liquidity support to regional equities were belied.
The bounce in Sydney was underpinned by BHP Billiton Ltd., whose shares climbed 1.3% after the mining giant reported an increase in quarterly iron-ore production, while sticking to its full-year iron-ore production target.
Copper extractor PanAust Ltd. advanced 0.9% after announcing a refinancing of its debt facilities.
Among other notable stock movers around the region, auto major Hyundai Motor Co. gained 1.6% after some recent declines and as the stock was helped by a rise in the yen, which tends to hurt its Japanese rivals.
But losses for financials and several other stocks sent the South Korean market lower, with Woori Finance Holdings Co. falling 1.7%, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. dropping 2% and Korea Electric Power Corp. declining 2%.
Shares of TDK Corp. retreated 4.2% in Tokyo after a Nikkei report tipped the firm’s October-December operating profit at 30% below year-earlier levels.
In other markets
The Shanghai CSI 300 added 10.56 points, or 0.4%, to 2,607.46
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index recouped 11.37 points, or 0.4%, to 3,231.23
Korea’s Kospi Index dropped 16.11 points, or 0.8%, to 1,980.41
Taiwan’s Taiex Index slid 14.92 points, or 0.2%, to 7,744.18
The NZX 50 gained 0.64 points to 4,187.72
Australia’s ASX Index took on 8.75 points, or 0.2%, to 4,787.83
