Asian Market News

Thursday June 18, 09:32 AM
Asia: Banks and exporters spearhead Tokyo retreat

LONDON (ShareCast) - Exporters and banks led the retreat in Tokyo on Thursday with shares in Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Mizuho Financial and Honda Motor (Paris: JP3854600008 -

href="http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q/h?s=HOND.PA">news) some of the day's biggest drags.

The Nikkei fell 1.4%, with profit takers weighing heavily on the index. Financials came under pressure after Standard & Poor's credit rating downgrade on almost 20 US lenders.

S&P said the business environment for American banks will become "less favourable" as it slashed the credit ratings of five banks to "junk" status.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 (news) index closed down 137 points at 9,703 in Tokyo.

The stronger yen against the dollar took a chunk out of Sony (Munich: 853687 - news) , Toyota and Canon (Berlin: CNN1.BE - news) . Softbank (Xetra: 891624 - news) fell 1.1%.

The Hang Seng headed 1.7% lower, registering its fourth day of losses, with heavyweights such as Bank of China and ICBC (0349.HK - news) among the biggest decliners.

HSBC (LSE: HSBA.L - news) fell 0.3% while Bank of Communications dropped 1.2%.

PetroChina was friendless, with its shares off 2.6%. Elsewhere China Life and China Mobile (0941.HK - news) were both lower.

The Hang Seng closed down 307 points to 17,777 in Hong Kong.

Send Article by Email | Send Article by IM | Blog This with Y! 360 | Printable View