Mfarhanonline Business News HONG KONG: Asian stocks ended mostly lower Monday as news that the United States had agreed a budget to avert a shutdown was tempered by profit-taking and weak Japanese pre-quake trade data.
Tokyo fell 0.50 percent, or 48.38 points, to 9,719.70 after the index on Friday closed at its highest level since the March 11 quake and tsunami disasters.
Hong Kong slipped 0.38 percent, or 93 points, to 24,303.07 and Seoul closed 0.26 percent, or 5.58 points, lower at 2,122.39. Shanghai gave up 0.24 percent, or 7.28 points, to close at 3,022.75 but Sydney rose 0.62 percent, or 30.6 points, to 4,971.2.
Japan”s Nikkei fell after figures showed a steeper-than-expected 2.3 percent fall in core machinery orders in February from January, raising concerns about the severity in coming months of the impact of the earthquake and tsunami.
The result compared with the median forecast for a 1.1-percent fall in a poll of economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and the Nikkei.
“The market is feeling quite nervous. If February is this bad, post-quake March will be even more severe,” Okasan Securities strategist Hideyuki Ishiguro told Dow Jones Newswires.
The Japanese trade figures weighed against relief that lawmakers in Washington had reached an agreement late Friday to avoid a federal government shutdown in the world”s biggest economy.
The eleventh hour accord, which cuts $38.5 billion in spending over the next six months, will be voted on in Congress later this week but is a done deal.
There had been fears that if a deal were not done, parts of the government would have been forced to close down, dealing a severe blow to the economy as it begins to show strong signs of recovery.
The Dow closed down 0.24 percent as investors grew nervous before a deal was brokered.
On currency markets the euro was at $1.4460 from $1.4480 late Friday in New York. The yen was at 84.55 to the dollar from 84.82, after the greenback earlier rose to 85.16. The Japanese unit was at 122.28 to the euro from 122.73.
Shanghai edged up a day after China posted its first quarterly trade deficit in seven years as rising commodity prices pushed manufacturers” costs higher.
China recorded a small trade deficit of $1.02 billion for the first quarter, its first since the beginning of 2004. But analysts said a large trade surplus was expected for the full year as its exports tend to grow later in the year.
Exports rose 26.5 percent on year in the first quarter and imports were up 32.6 percent on year. (AFP)
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