“Most Asian stocks fell, with the regional benchmark index set for a third straight weekly drop, as raw material producers declined on lower metal and oil prices utilities tumbled as Tokyo Electric Power Co. reported Japan’s biggest corporate loss in eight years.
Hyundai Motor Co. (005380), South Korea’s No. 1 carmaker, and Brambles Ltd. (BXB), the world’s largest supplier of wooden pallets, advanced at least 1.4 percent. BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), the world’s biggest mining company, fell 1.7 percent in Sydney as oil and metal futures dropped. Kansai Electric Power Co. slumped 4.9 percent, leading declines in the Nikkei 225 Stock Average, after Tokyo Electric, owner of the nuclear reactor crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, posted a record loss.
“The market may have become oversold amid selling in the past three weeks,” said Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors Ltd., which manages $98 billion in Sydney. “The soft patch of economic data from the U.S., along with tightening concerns inChina, the recession in Japan and Europe’s debt crisis will leave a volatile environment for the market in the next few months.”
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 0.1 percent to 134.82 as of 7:27 p.m. in Tokyo, after swinging between gains and losses at least 10 times. About five stocks fell for every four that rose. The gauge is heading for its third weekly drop, the longest streak of weekly declines since November.
The regional benchmark index last week recorded its second straight weekly drop amid concern that China’s anti-inflation policies may slow global economic growth and as the U.S. Federal Reserve prepares to end a $600 billion asset-purchase program known as quantitative easing.
