Asian stocks sagged down, with the regional benchmark index on pace for a three-week low, as Japanese equities shrank on a firmer yen and mining companies retreated amid concern about China’s economic view.
Honda Motor Co., a carmaker that acquires about 83 percent of sales overseas, declined 1.7 percent in Tokyo, pacing declines among Japanese exporters. BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s largest mining firm, gave up 1 percent in Sydney. Celltrion Inc. surrendered 6.4 percent in Seoul after the drugmaker’s managing earnings tumbled. ChinaVision Media Group Ltd. almost quadrupled in Hong Kong as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., China’s biggest e-commerce firm, settled to take a majority stake in the movie producer.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index recorded a 1.4 percent decrease to 136.10 as of 11:09 a.m. in Tokyo, on tracked for the weakest close since February 20. Mining firms recorded the largest pullback among the 10 industry groups on the regional benchmark index. Copper futures yesterday slide lower to the weakest mark since July 2010 after data showed a decline in China’s credit development last month.
“China is going to have a very interesting year,” Carl Tannenbaum, Chicago-based chief economist at Northern Trust Corp., said on Bloomberg Television from Seoul. “There’s been a little bit of an excess credit there that has created bubbles in real estate. China has to be very careful that their efforts to bring things under control don’t create a very large correction that will be disruptive.”
China Credit
Aggregate financing in China plummeted to 938.7 billion yuan ($153 billion) last month amid a crackdown on shadow lending, a government report this week displayed. That compares with January’s record 2.58 trillion yuan and is less than the 1.31 trillion yuan median estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. Chinese exports plunged the most since 2009 last month, a separate report over the weekend showed.
Japan’s Topix index sank 1.9 percent after the yen yesterday rallied the most in a more than a week versus the dollar. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index tumbled 1.1 percent. South Korea’s Kospi Index slumped 1.2 percent. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index missed 0.2 percent. Taiwan’s Taiex index relinquished 0.5 percent and Singapore’s Straits Times Index shrank 0.7 percent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index logged a 1.5 percent decrease, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of mainland firms exchanged in the city retreated 1.8 percent. China’s Shanghai Composite Index gave up 0.2 percent.
Baoding Tianwei Baobian Electric Co.’s bonds and stock were suspended from exchanging yesterday after the Chinese electrical equipment maker announced it reported declines for a second year running. Investor scrutiny of China’s onshore bond market is soaring higher after Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy Science & Technology Co. last week became the first firm to default. Chaori Solar’s failure to pay has stoked speculation more companies may miss debt deadlines also.
Economy of India
Indian industrial production possibly depreciated a fourth month in January while consumer-price growth slowed in February, according to Bloomberg surveys before today’s data. Thailand may trim down interest rates while Japan reports on consumer confidence.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index bolstered 6.1 percent from this year’s low on February 4 through yesterday. The gauge exchanged at 13 times the projected profits of its affiliated firms yesterday, compared with 15.9 for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and 14.4 for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, according to data gathered by Bloomberg.
Futures on the S&P 500 inched down 0.1 percent today. The U.S. equity benchmark index backslide 0.5 percent yesterday, continuing its pullback from a record high achieved on March 7.
Russia stood by deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and called possible U.S. support to the new government in Kiev illegal, as the standoff with Western governments over Crimea intensified. Ukraine’s interim prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk meets U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington today as the House of Representatives passed a resolution looking sanctions versus Russia.
