Tokyo leads Asian stocks lower


The slump in U.S. consumer confidence is worrying investors in Asia

TOKYO, Japan -- Asian stocks are mainly lower heading into Wednesday afternoon, after a drop in U.S. consumer confidence renewed worries about the strength of the economic recovery there.

Japan's markets, which surged Tuesday, are showing the biggest falls.

In Tokyo, the tech-sensitive Nikkei 225 average has ended the morning down 159.40 points or 1.59 percent at 9,844.32.

That takes it back below the 10,000 level it saw Tuesday, when the market rallied almost 3.5 percent.

The broader capital-weighted Topix index has fallen 1.20 percent to 963.26.

Markets in South Korea, Taiwan and New Zealand are also down, but the percentage falls are more modest than Tokyo's.

Australia and Singapore are just into positive territory. Hong Kong opened slightly higher, but has dipped just into the red.

U.S. stocks ended mixed on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average closing 0.37 percent lower at 8680.03 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq up 0.67 percent to 1344.19(Full U.S. roundup).

Implications for Japan


Hitachi posted a net loss of $70 million for the June quarter on Tuesday

Wall Street's mixed performance came after new figures showed consumer confidence fell in July. That raised concerns about a cooling in the U.S. economy, which has implications for Japan's own recovery.

The U.S. is Japan's biggest export market.

"The consensus is still that consumer spending in the U.S. will hold steady. But as it comprises two thirds of the economy, even a small decline would slow down the economic recovery and hurt Japanese exports," Takashi Miyazaki, senior strategist at UFJ Partners Asset Management, told Reuters news agency.

In Japan, high tech exporters are weaker, with Hitachi off more than 3.1 percent to 679 yen and Sony down 2.5 percent to 5430 yen. Hitachi posted a net loss of $70 million for the June quarter on Tuesday(Full Story).

Japan's biggest chipmaker, Toshiba, has fallen 3.7 percent to 443 yen, NEC is off 2.6 percent to 711 yen and Fujitsu is 2.52 percent lower at 696 yen after hitting a nine-year low of 694 yen.

Big banks are also lower, UFJ easing 2.4 percent to 287,000 yen and Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group down 1.6 percent to 810,000 yen.

Carmakers lower

Among automakers, Nissan has given back some of the previous day's strong gains, falling 3 percent to 837 yen. Honda is down about 1.5 percent and Toyota is 0.85 percent easier at 2905 yen.

Telcos are showing weakness across the board. NTT, which upgraded its profit outlook on Monday, is down 2.2 percent to 483,000 yen. Its mobile phone subsidiary NTT DoCoMo is 2.56 percent lower at 266,000 yen.

Rival KDDI is off more than 3 percent and Japan Telecom is 3.44 percent lower at 365,000 yen.

In Australia, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 is relatively steady, up 2.8 points or 0.09 percent to 3086.6 after touching 3100 in morning trade.

Most of the big banks are stronger, as is Telstra. But market heavyweight News Corp is down again on the U.S. consumer figures, easing 29 cents or 3 percent to A$9.20.

Retailers Coles and Woolworths are weaker, as are the big resources stocks Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.

Samsung Electronics up

In Seoul, heavyweight Samsung Electronics is just into the black, but telcos SK Telecom and KT Corp are weaker.

Hyundai Motor is up slightly. Daewoo Motor Sales is down 0.8 percent.

Taiwan's Taiex is down about 1.18 percent at 4945.89. The market's two big chip foundries, TSMC and UMC, are down 2.9 percent and 2.1 percent respectively. Industrials are also weaker.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index opened slightly higher at 10,169 and is steady near midday. Hong Kong usually tracks the U.S. markets closely, given that the U.S. is Hong Kong's second largest trading partner.

China's largest beer maker Tsingtao Brewery is up 5.47 percent to HK$3.375, after unveiling a 50 percent jump in unaudited first half net profit.

Singapore's Straits Times index is up 1.3 points or 0.09 percent to 1518.03 in late morning trade.