By Jonathan Burgos & Adam Haigh - Jan 8, 2013 7:01 AM GMT+0400
Asian stocks fell, with the regional benchmark index heading for its second day of decline, as Japanese exporters dropped after the yen’s advance dimmed the outlook for overseas earnings.
Mazda Motor Corp. (7261), which gets about 72 percent of its sales outside of Japan, sank 3.9 percent. Aozora Bank Ltd. (8304) declined 2.4 percent, extending losses for a second day, after the Japanese lender confirmed Cerberus Capital Management LP will sell most of its holdings. HTC Corp. slipped 3.8 percent in Taipei after Asia’s second-largest smartphone maker posted fourth-quarter operating income that missed analyst estimates.
Pedestrians walk past the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo, Japan. Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) slipped 0.3 percent to 131.08 as of 12 p.m. Tokyo time, erasing earlier gains of as much as 0.3 percent. The regional benchmark gauge posted its seventh weekly advance last week, the longest winning streak since March last year, after the U.S. Congress approved a budget deal and manufacturing reports from China and the U.S. added to signs of a global recovery.
“We don’t expect a no-brainer, one-way climb for stocks,” saidMichael Kurtz, chief global equity strategist at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Hong Kong. “Japan for its part has delivered a key step toward expectations of a major pro-reflation policy shift.”
Japan’s Nikkei 225 (NKY) Stock Average climbed 22 percent through yesterday from Nov. 14 when elections were announced, driving the gauge into a bull market as the yen fell on expectations a new government would call for more stimulus. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a proponent for more monetary policy easing, will have a chance to reshape the Bank of Japanearly this year, when the terms of Governor Masaaki Shirakawa and his two deputies expire.
Nikkei, Kospi
The Nikkei 225 fell 0.5 percent, extending losses for a second day. South Korea’s Kospi Index dropped 0.4 percent, while Taiwan’s Taiex Index decreased 0.5 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index swung between gains and losses. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slid 0.4 percent and China’s Shanghai Composite Index retreated 0.5 percent.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index surged 14 percent in 2012 as central banks from the U.S., Europe, Japan and China took action to spur economic growth. The Asia Pacific gauge traded at 14.1 times average estimated earnings, compared with about 13.2 times for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and about 11.9 times for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Futures on the S&P 500 Index were little changed today. The benchmark U.S. equities gauge fell 0.3 percent yesterday as investors awaited the start of the corporate earnings season.
Mazda, Nintendo
Japanese exporters declined as the yen headed for its biggest two-day advance in two months. A weaker currency reduces overseas earnings of Japanese carmakers and electronics manufacturers when repatriated.
Mazda dropped 3.9 percent to 173 yen in Tokyo. Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), the world’s biggest carmaker, slid 1.1 percent to 4,140 yen. Nintendo Co., the maker of wii game consoles, fell 2.7 percent to 8,740 yen.
Aozora Bank decreased 2.4 percent to 244 yen, after tumbling 10 percent yesterday. Cerberus will sell as many as 632.5 million shares at a price to be determined as soon as Jan. 16, Aozora said in a statement yesterday.
HTC declined 3.8 percent to NT$277 in Taipei. Operating income was NT$600 million ($21 million) in the fourth quarter, compared with the NT$1.11 billion average of 20 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Net income was NT$1 billion, the Taoyuan, Taiwan-based company said in a statement yesterday. That’s the lowest since 2004 and less than the NT$10.9 billion it posted a year earlier.
Among stocks that rose, Sharp Corp., Japan’s largest maker of liquid crystal displays, advanced 5 percent to 296 yen. Sales increased in each of the last four months from a year earlier, helped by recovering demand for LCD televisions, President Takashi Okuda told reporters in Osaka yesterday.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Burgos in Singapore at jburgos4@bloomberg.net; Adam Haigh in Sydney at ahaigh1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Gentle at ngentle2@bloomberg.net
