Asia closes lower after Fed holds fire


Technology stocks such as Fujitsu closed lower in Tokyo

Staff and wires

TOKYO, Japan -- Asian stocks closed mainly lower Wednesday afternoon, with Japanese exporters down after the U.S. Federal Reserve left rates unchanged and the dollar slipped below 118 yen.

Hong Kong saw the sharpest fall, off 1.37 percent. Taiwan did best of the gainers, putting on 1.44 percent.

But in most markets the moves were modest. Tokyo's Nikkei gave up half a percent or 50.2 points to 9638.41. The broader, capital-weighted Topix did a little better, easing 2.33 points or 0.24 percent to 952.55.

Australia and New Zealand followed Tokyo, with relatively subdued falls.

South Korea's Kospi put on 2.61 points or 0.37 percent to 711.24. In Taiwan, the Taiex finished up 69.5 points to 4887.43.

The Fed decision to leave rates on hold saw Wall Street close lower Tuesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average finishing 2.4 percent down at 8482.39. The Nasdaq lost 2.87 percent to 1269.28. (Full Story)

Technology stocks down

Tokyo's export-oriented technology stocks bore the brunt of Wednesday's falls, with Fujitsu, Hitachi, Toshiba and Canon all off 2 percent or more. Carmaker Honda also dipped sharply, off 3 percent to 4870 yen.

But traders noted the resilience of Japanese shares compared to falls in the United States.

"The Fed's decision to stand pat and change its bias to an easier stance came as no surprise. The degree of Wall Street's drop, however, was a bit startling," Atsushi Tajima, general manager of equities at Kokusai Securities, told Reuters news agency.

"If you take that and the yen's jump into account, I'd say we're holding up pretty well. Trade is extremely thin. There may not be many buyers out there, but sellers are scarce as well."

Carmakers dip


Canon and other big exporters to the United States were down about 2 percent

In the automotive sector, Honda had the biggest fall. Japan's No. 2 carmaker counts on the North American market for the bulk of its profits, making it susceptible to any weakening of the U.S. dollar.

The dollar slipped below 118 yen in Asia Wednesday, trading recently at 117.30.

Nissan closed off 2.19 percent to 850 yen and No. 1 maker Toyota eased 1.17 percent to 2950 yen.

Consumer electronics leader Sony, another big exporter, was 0.6 percent lower at 5040 yen. Canon, which gets 70 percent of its sales overseas, dropped 2.16 percent to 4070 yen.

Chip and computer-maker Fujitsu slipped 3.6 percent to 589 yen after earlier touching a new nine-year low of 587 yen.

Telco giant NTT finished flat at 489,000 yen. Big banks were mixed, with Mizuho & MTFG higher but UFJ and SMBC slightly easier.

Meat processor Nippon Meat Packers closed 4 percent higher at 808 yen. A scandal over mislabeled beef sent the stock to a 16-year low of 741 yen on Tuesday.

Korea up, Australia weaker

In Seoul, the Kospi climbed into the black after early weakness.

Market heavyweight Samsung Electronics eased 0.77 percent to 322,000 won. Hyundai Motor, which posted a 46 percent rise in first half profit Wednesday, finished 0.46 percent down to 32,250 won.

Troubled chipmaker Hynix Semiconductor posted a first-half loss of $345 million. It dropped 5.6 percent to 505 yen. (Full Story)

Gainers in South Korea included SK Telecom, KT Corp, steelmaker Posco and power utility Kepco.

In Australia, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 finished the day down 14.1 points or 0.45 percent to 3096.2.

News Corp, the market's biggest stock, put on 0.2 percent to A$9.80. It will post full year results Wednesday night.

Telstra and NAB made small gains, but most other bluechips ended lower, including BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and other big banks CBA and ANZ.

Qantas, which lost a battle with the Australian government Tuesday to lift the 49 percent cap on overseas ownership, added 4 cents or 0.86 percent to A$4.67. (Full Story)

Singapore's market is just in the black after strong gains on Monday and Tuesday. The Straits Times index is up 1.7 points or 0.11 percent to 1530.80 heading towards the close.

New Zealand's Top 40 was off 0.4 percent to 2021.97 after the central bank chose to leave rates on hold. (Full Story)

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng dipped 138 points or 1.37 percent to 9961.35, after going as low as 9883. China Mobile lost about 2.4 percent to HK$21.70.

Reuters contributed to this report.