Asian stock markets ended sharply lower Wednesday, as Alcoa kicked off the U.S. earnings season on a sour note and Japan's Sharp predicted deeper losses.
The announcements, which followed an overnight drop on Wall Street, prompted investors to lock in some of their recent profits ahead of holidays in some Asian markets for Good Friday and Easter Monday.
Japan's Nikkei 225 finished down 237.84 points, or 2.7% at 8595.01.
In Tokyo, shares of Sharp Corp. tumbled 6.1% after the electronics maker said it expects losses for the year ended March 31 to widen to 130 billion yen ($1.3 billion U.S.) compared with its earlier projection of a 100-billion-yen loss. Other exporters also lost ground, with Sony Corp. falling 5% and Canon Inc. losing 5.5%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index shed 454.11 points, or 3%, to 14,476.86, with financials led lower by market heavyweight HSBC Holdings, which dropped 5.6%, following the weak finish on Wall Street.
Aluminum stocks declined after Alcoa posted a first-quarter operating loss of 59 cents U.S. a share, wider than estimated, due to what it called a "historic drop" in aluminum prices and industrial demand. Aluminum Corp. of China tumbled 4.6% in Hong Kong
In Sydney, Alumina lost 6.4%, while Rio Tinto edged down 0.7%, after it tumbled 10% in the previous session.
Economic data remained weak, meanwhile, with Japan's current-account surplus dropping 55.6% year-to-year in February as exports and imports both recorded their biggest drops on record.
Shinko Research Institute economist Norio Miyagawa said the 44.9% drop in imports was worrisome as "declines in imports are expected to get bigger ahead as Japan's domestic demand -- such as capital spending and consumer consumption -- is shrinking."
Furthermore, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services wrote in a report that the deterioration in credit quality of Japanese corporations and financial institutions was likely to continue for some time amid uncertainty over the prospects for the Japanese as well as global economies.
Chris Blair, Patersons Securities' head of retail trading in Sydney, said traders did not want to be long before the Easter long weekend there, particularly as U.S. first-quarter earnings season gets underway.
"The market's had a good run, it's due for a pullback and that's what's happening at the moment," he said. "I'm not saying it's going to come back a lot, but short-term momentum has turned" negative.
Shares of Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing dropped 5.7% after Macquarie Research downgraded the stock to "underperform" from neutral.
Esprit Holdings fell 6% after the clothing retailer said it was replacing Chief Executive Heinz Krogner by Nov. 1. The company named Ronald Van der Vis as Mr. Krogner's successor.
CHINA
China's Shanghai Composite, one of the world's best performing markets in recent months, subsided 97.60 points, or 3.8% to 2,479.35. The index is still up nearly 29% so far in 2009.
Elsewhere:
Singapore’s Straits Times Index was off 18.43 points, or 1.9% to 1,783.96
South Korea’s Kospi Composite Index surrendered 38.03 points, or 2.9%, to 1,262.07
Taiwan’s Taiex Index gave up 133.29 points, or 2.4%, to 5,443,56
New Zealand’s NZX Index slid 43.56 points, or 1.7%, to 2,612.42
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index was off 86.80 points or 2.3%, to 3,619.50
