Asian markets mostly declined Tuesday, with steelmakers such as Nippon Steel Corp. and Posco dropping on sliding commodity prices to outweigh gains in airline and automobile stocks such as Cathay Pacific Airways and Honda Motor Co.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed down 127.31 points or 0.95% at 13,303.60 while the benchmark Hang Seng Index dropped 218.45 points or 1.0% to close at 21,640.89.
Among economic data released today, wholesale price inflation jumped 7.1% in July from a year ago, higher than the 5.7% annual increase that the analysts had been expecting. The Bank of Japan said that on a monthly basis, the price of corporate goods rose 2.0%, sharply higher than the 0.8% increase in June, which is also the forecast for July.
Steelmakers led the decliners. Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Industries plunged 4.6% each and JFE Holdings slumped 6.1%. Among the non-ferrous metal companies, Sumitomo Metal Mining plummeted 3.1% and Mitsubishi Materials tumbled 5.1%.
High-tech stocks were mixed, with Tokyo Electron losing 2.9%, chip tester maker Advantest falling 2.3%, Mitsubishi Electrical Industrial shedding 1.5%, Fanuc Plunging 3.0%, Fujitsu tumbling 2.8% and NEC advancing 0.8%.
Among exporters, Cannon added 0.8% and Honda Motor jumped 2.8%, but Toyota Motor slipped 0.2%, Sony dropped 0.9% and Komatsu plunged 3.6%.
However, financial stocks finished broadly higher. Mizuho Financial Group rose 1.5%, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group added 0.1% and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group edged up 0.2%. General leasing firm Orix climbed 1.0% and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance surged 5.5%.
CHINA
The Chinese market closed lower for a third day, despite a slowdown in July inflation. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index shed 12.88 points or 0.52% to finish at 2,457.20, its lowest closing level in 19 months. The key index has dropped nearly 10% over the three trading sessions.
Inflation slipped to 6.3% in July from 7.1% in the previous month. According to analysts a decline in consumer-level inflation could prove temporary after the producer price index surged 10%, its highest rate since 1996, a report released Monday showed.
Steelmakers closed higher after Angang Steel reported that first half net profit grew 24.5% on year-over-year basis, but airlines and Olympic-related stocks continued to decline.
Angang Steel jumped 5.0% and Baoshan Iron & Steel climbed 2.6%. In the airline sector, China Eastern Airlines plunged 6.2% and Air China plummeted 8.2%.
Among refiners, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp or Sinopec declined 1.9%, while index heavyweight PetroChina edged up 0.45.
Among Olympics-related stocks, roast duck supplier China Quanjude tumbled by 10.0% for a third day and Beijing Jingxi Tourism Development also fell 10.0%.
Gold miners lost ground after prices for the precious metal tumbled to their lowest level since December. Shandong Gold-Mining tumbled 7.0% and Zhongjin Gold shed 6.5%.
Elsewhere:
Taiwan's Taiex closed down 0.4% at 7,293.
Singapore's STI closed down 0.3% at 2,816.
Malaysia's KLCI closed down 0.8% at 1,118.
Indonesia's Jakarta Composite index closed down 3.6% at 2,057.
India's Sensex closed down 1.9% at 15,212.
South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.3% to 1,577.12.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.6% to 5,053.60.
New Zealand's NZX 50 index gave up 0.5% to 3,353.63.
with files from other wire services
