An investor walks in front of the stock price monitor at a private securities company Tuesday, March 12, 2013, in Shanghai, China. Asian stock markets mostly fell on Wednesday, with few catalysts to drive buying after recent gains, while Wall Street provided a limp lead. AP PHOTO
HONG KONG—Asian markets mostly fell on Wednesday, with few catalysts to drive buying after recent gains, while Wall Street provided a limp lead.
The yen edged up slightly as investors weighed reports that Japan’s main opposition party will vote against one of the government’s nominations for deputy governor of the country’s central bank.
Tokyo fell 0.61 percent, or 75.15 points to 12,239.66, Sydney slipped 0.50 percent, or 25.5 points, to 5,092.4, while Seoul rose 0.32 percent, or 6.39 points, to 1,999.73.
Hong Kong shed 1.46 percent, or 333.95 points, to end at 22,556.65, while Shanghai fell 0.99 percent, or 22.64 points, to 2,263.97.
Traders took a breather as they await fresh buying impetus, with the Dow extending its record-breaking run to six sessions but only by squeezing out a marginal gain of 0.02 percent.
However, the broad-market S&P 500 fell 0.24 percent, snapping a seven-session winning streak that had taken it to within a whisker of its all-time high. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.32 percent.
In Tokyo the Nikkei rolled back slightly as the dollar struggled to advance any further against the yen, having shot up by about 20 percent since November.
The greenback saw some selling pressure on Tuesday in New York after reports that Japan’s largest opposition party said it would not back the nomination of Kikuo Iwata to serve as the Bank of Japan’s deputy governor.
Iwata, along with the nominee for governor Haruhiko Kuroda, is a strong supporter of giving more control of the BoJ to the government and an advocate of further aggressive monetary easing.
His failure to win approval could raise questions about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s clout, analysts said.
The Democratic Party of Japan, however, did say it would support the nominations of Kuroda and Hiroshi Nakaso, in line for the second available post as deputy governor.
But Sean Callow, senior currency strategist at Westpac in Sydney, told Dow Jones Newswires: “The local press is confident that all three nominees will eventually be accepted.”
On currency markets the dollar slipped to 95.56 yen from 96.05 yen in New York late Tuesday. It had been at 96.40 yen earlier Tuesday in Asia.
The euro bought 124.80 yen and $1.3057, compared with 125.19 yen and $1.3035.
And the pound bought $1.4953 from $1.4903 late Tuesday, with the British unit recovering slightly after a sell on weak industrial production numbers that fueled fears the economy could slip into recession again.
Oil prices were mixed, with New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, gaining 31 cents to $92.85 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for April delivery losing 29 cents to $109.36.
Gold was at $1,592.78 an ounce at 1050 GMT compared with $1,582.70 late Tuesday.
In other markets:
— Wellington fell 0.86 percent, or 37.62 points, to 4,341.15.
Telecom eased 6.0 percent to NZ$2.30 while Auckland Airport was down 4.2 percent at NZ$2.76 and Fletcher Building lost 1.76 percent to NZ$8.94.
— Manila closed 0.15 percent lower, giving up 9.86 points to 6,776.56.
SM Investments fell 0.54 percent to 1,098 pesos and Ayala Land dropped 0.64 percent to 31.20 pesos, while Alliance Global Group slipped 1.79 percent to 22 pesos.
— Taipei ended flat, edging up 0.80 points to 7,995.51.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. rose 1.95 percent to Tw$104.5 while smartphone maker HTC fell 3.98 percent to Tw$241.0.
— Kuala Lumpur lost 0.62 percent, or 10.32 points, to 1,646.22.
CIMB Group shed 1.9 percent to 7.11 ringgit, RHB Capital lost 3.5 percent to 8.15 while Petronas Gas gained 1.9 percent to 18.96.
— Bangkok added 0.13 percent, or 2.02 points, to 1,578.70.
Oil company Bangchak Petroleum rose 4.26 percent to 36.75 baht, while Kiatnakin Bank jumped 4 percent to 65 baht.
— Jakarta was down 0.39 percent, or 18.87 points, at 4,835.44.
Cement producer Semen Indonesia lost 1.91 percent to 18,000 rupiah, auto manufacturer Astra International dropped 1.24 percent to 7,950 rupiah, while paper maker Pabrik Kertas Tjiwi Kimia gained 2.35 percent to 2,175 rupiah.
— Singapore dropped 0.44 percent, or 14.50 points, to 3,288.52.
Singapore Airlines gained 0.18 percent to Sg$10.89 while Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. shed 1.16 percent to Sg$10.25.
— Mumbai fell 1.03 percent, or 202.37 points, to 19,362.55 points.
Infosys was down 1.89 percent at 2,862.45 rupees and Tata Motors shed 1.15 percent to 300.80 rupees.