Forex Pros – Asian stock markets declined on Monday, as market sentiment was weighed by ongoing concerns over Japan’s nuclear crisis and as violence intensified in Libya over the weekend. 

During late Asian trade, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index shed 0.65%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.2%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 dipped 0.6%.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant, saw shares plunge 17.7%, falling to lowest level since 1977 after Japan’s nuclear safety agency said radiation levels in water in the Fukushima Daiichi No. 2 reactor building were measured at more than 1,000 millisieverts per hour.

The ongoing crisis at the crippled plant had wiped off nearly USD26 billion in the company’s market value, spurring calls for President Masataka Shimizu to quit.

Meanwhile, shares in the nation’s largest cigarette maker Japan Tobacco fell as much as 2% before recouping some losses to close 0.65% lower. The company said it would halt shipments between March 30 and April 10 because of damage to factories.

Shares in automakers were in focus after Goldman Sachs said in a report late Friday that Japan’s powerhouse auto industry still “faces an uphill battleâ€. The investment bank estimated factory shutdowns were costing the Japan automakers USD200 million a day.

The nation’s largest automaker Toyota saw shares add 0.6%, rival Honda jumped 2%, while Nissan saw shares rise 3.5% after it said operations at some of its Japanese factories were due to resume.

In Hong Kong, shares in oil and gas giant Sinopec dropped 2.8% after it said 2010 net income totaled CNY71.8 billion, falling short of market expectations for income of CNY72.5 billion.

Shares in the nation’s second largest lender China Construction Bank slumped 2.2% despite reporting a 14% jump in 2010 net income to CNY134.8 billion. Analysts expected the company’s net profit to total CNY139 billion.

Meanwhile, European stock markets were mixed. The EURO STOXX 50 shed 0.2%, France’s CAC 40 edged down 0.15%, the FTSE 100 was up 0.15%, while Germany’s DAX dipped 0.17%.

Later in the day, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet was to speak at the Academy of Sciences, in Paris, while the U.S. was to release industry data on pending home sales as well as official data on personal spending, personal income and personal consumption expenditures.

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