A currency trader uses a phone at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Korea Exchange Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea on Sept. 14, 2012. Asian stock markets mostly fell on Tuesday following losses on Wall Street and as profit-takers moved in after last week’s huge gains sparked by the US Federal Reserve stimulus plan. AP PHOTO/LEE JIN-MAN
HONG KONG—Asian markets mostly fell on Tuesday following losses on Wall Street and as profit-takers moved in after last week’s huge gains sparked by the US Federal Reserve stimulus plan.
Anti-Japan protests across China also hit shares in both countries, with three of Japan’s biggest car makers saying they had closed their factories or cut production in China as a result.
Tokyo closed 0.39 percent, or 35.62 points, lower at 9,123.77 and Sydney fell 0.18 percent, or 7.8 points, to 4,394.7 while Seoul edged up 0.13 percent, or 2.61 points, to close at 2,004.96.
Hong Kong shed 0.27 percent, or 56.18 points, to 20,601.93 while Shanghai fell 0.91 percent, or 18.96 points, to 2,059.54.
Investors were taking a step back after the Fed on Thursday said it would start a third round of bond-buying, known as quantitative easing (QE3), in a bid to jumpstart the US economy.
The announcement, which followed a European Central Bank plan to buy the debt of under-pressure eurozone nations, had injected global markets with some much-needed risk appetite on Friday.
But profit-taking on Wall Street Monday was fueled by data showing the Fed’s Empire State manufacturing index for the New York region fell for a second straight month in September.
The Dow fell 0.30 percent, the S&P 500 slid 0.31 percent and the Nasdaq shed 0.17 percent.
“The big question was how long the exuberance of QE3 was going to last. Not very long it seems,” Tim Waterer, senior trader at CMC Markets in Sydney, told Dow Jones Newswires.
On currency markets the dollar was changing hands at 78.64 yen in early European trade, compared with 78.70 yen in New York late Monday.
The euro fetched $1.3085 and 102.96 yen, down from $1.3114 and 103.22 yen.
With the Fed and ECB action unveiled, eyes are now on a two-day policy meeting of the central Bank of Japan that starts Tuesday, while China is due to release manufacturing activity figures for September on Thursday.
Tokyo and Beijing are locked in a political stand-off over a disputed group of islands in the East China Sea that have seen violent protests across China which have hit shares.
Honda Motor said it had temporarily closed all five of its China plants, while Nissan shut two of three factories and Toyota said it had scaled back some production without elaborating.
The decisions came after Panasonic said it suspended operations at some of its facilities in China and Fast Retailing temporarily closed seven of its 145 Uniqlo stores in the country.
In Tokyo, Nissan slumped 5.01 percent, Toyota closed 0.62 percent lower and Honda was off 2.5 percent. Panasonic eased 0.7 percent and Fast Retailing tumbled 6.97 percent.
Kenichi Hirano, market analyst at Tachibana Securities, said the islands are like “clouds hanging low in the sky,” adding some retailers who had outlets in China could be negatively affected.
Oil prices also eased, with New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in October, losing 31 cents to $96.30 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for November delivery losing 73 cents to $113.97 06.
Gold was at $1,756.35 at 1050 GMT compared with $1,770.20 on Monday.
In other markets:
— Taipei dropped 0.36 percent, or 27.96 points, to 7,734.26.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. shed 0.92 percent to Tw$85.7 while Hon Hai Precision was 1.44 percent lower at Tw$96.1.
— Manila closed 0.37 percent lower, dipping 19.77 points to 5,331.13.
Bank of the Philippine Islands dropped 1.98 percent to 76.90 pesos and Metropolitan Bank and Trust was down 1.18 percent to 91.90 pesos.
Philippine Long Distance Telephone fell 0.90 percent to 2,864 pesos.
— Wellington fell 0.33 percent, or 12.76 points, to 3,804.48.
Fletcher Building fell 0.9 percent to NZ$6.88 and Telecom was down 0.6 percent at NZ$2.49.
— Jakarta fell 0.74 percent, or 31.39 points, at 4,223.89.
Timah fell 3.71 percent to 1,560 rupiah, Astra Agro Lestari lost 1.98 percent to 22,300 rupiah, while Telkom rose 1.6 percent to 9,400 rupiah.
— Singapore slid 0.35 percent, or 10.74 points, to 3,067.98.
DBS Group fell 1.16 percent to Sg$14.45 and CapitaLand shed 0.62 percent to Sg$3.21.
— Kuala Lumpur stocks lost 2.62 points, or 0.16 percent, to end at 1,640.33.
AirAsia fell 4.2 percent to 2.97 ringgit and Petronas Dagangan was down 1.7 percent at 22.40. Tradewinds Corp. surged 17 percent to 1.01 ringgit.
— Bangkok dropped 0.44 percent, or 5.68 points, to 1,272.86.
— Coal producer Banpu fell 3.04 percent to 446 baht, while PTT lost 1.17 percent to 338 baht.
— Mumbai slid 0.25 percent, or 46.3 points, to 18,496.01.
Software exporter Wipro fell 3.79 percent to 369.6 rupees while rival TCS dropped 3.02 percent to 1,300.4 rupees.
India’s largest private firm energy giant Reliance Industries slid 2.11 percent to 855.2 rupees.
Originally posted at 11:13 am | Tuesday, September 18, 2012