Asian markets retreated Tuesday, with banking stocks such as Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and HSBC Holdings pacing losses, as fears about the U.S. financial and housing sectors revisited the region after an overnight sell-off on Wall Street reflected such concerns.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed down 99.95 points or 0.8% at 12,778.71 while the benchmark Hang Seng index closed down 48.13 points or 0.23% at 21,056.66.
On the economic front, the Bank of Japan said that Japan's corporate service price index climbed 1.3% on year in July, posting a score of 95.6. The increase was slightly below analyst expectations for an increase of 1.4% on year, but was higher compared to the 1.2% annual increase in June. The data also represented the 24th straight month of increase for the index. The index eased 0.1% from a month ago.
Financial stocks finished lower on worries about the U.S. financial sector. Mitsubishi UFJ lost 1.3%, Mizuho Financial declined 0.4%, Sumitomo Mitsui dropped 1.5% and Resona Holdings lost 0.9%. Top brokerage Nomura Holdings fell 2.1% and Daiwa Securities Group gave away 1.3%. Sompo Japan Insurance shed 2.0% and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance slid 1.5%.
Among export-oriented stocks, electronics giant Sony dropped 1.6%, Canon lost 1.0%, Komatsu declined 1.5% and Toyota Motor slipped 0.2%. Nikon closed unchanged and Honda Motor gained 0.6%.
In the tech sector, Advantest rebounded and closed 0.4% higher, while Kyocera lost 0.8%, Fanuc fell 1.8%, Matsushita Electrical Industrial dropped 0.4% and NEC slipped 0.2%.
Oil explorer Inpex Holdings declined 0.8%, Nippon Oil gave away 1.1% and Nippon Mining holdings lost 1.4% despite a rise in oil prices. Inpex said Monday that it has decided to build a liquefied natural gas import terminal in northwestern Japan for about 100 billion yen to meet robust growth in LNG demand.
Shin-Etsu Chemical rose 0.3% after the company said that it would buy back its own shares worth up to 13 billion yen, or up to 0.5% of outstanding shares, between August 26 and October 23.
The Chinese market closed sharply lower, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closing down 63.29 points or 2.62% at 2,350.08, near its 20-month closing low. Brokerages finished sharply lower, as stock market turnover remained low, while airlines and oil refiners fell following a rise in crude oil prices.
Haitong Securities tumbled 7.8% and Changjiang Securities plunged 7.2%. Among refiners, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp fell 0.9% and index heavyweight PetroChina dropped 1.8%. In the airline sector, China Southern Airlines slumped 7.2%.
China Life Insurance fell 0.9% after the company reported a 32% deline in first-half profit to 15.84 billion yuan as a result of investment losses. China Unicom plummeted 3.7%, despite posting a first-half net profit growth of 103% to 4.42 billion yuan.
China Minsheng Banking rose 1.4%. The bank announced that first-half net profit rose 114% year-over-year to 6.04 billion yuan. Bank of Beijing fell 1.9% after it reported first-half net profit growth of 121.4%, while China CITIC Bank gained 4.1% on rumors that regulators rejected a plan by investor Warren Buffet to take a US$500 million stake in the bank.
Elsewhere:
Taiwan's Taiex closed down 0.9% at 6,964.
Singapore's STI closed down 1.0% at 2,707.
Malaysia's KLCI closed down 0.8% at 1,070.
Indonesia's Jakarta Composite index closed down 0.9% at 2,107.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index slid 0.2% to 5,007.50,
South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.8% to 1,490.25.
New Zealand's NZX 50 index dipped 0.2%.
with files from other wire services
