Market Update
Asian indexes traded lower Monday, extending weekend losses on Wall Street and following disappointing economic data in Japan, and lower crude prices.
At the time of writing, the Nikkei was down 0.9% while the Shanghai Composite declined 1.1%. The Hang Seng was off 0.8% and the Sensex dropped 0.6% on opening. Markets in Australia are closed due to a national holiday.
In Japan, data released by the Economic and Social Research Institute showed a bigger than expected fall in April machinery orders to 3.3% as against expectations of a 2% fall, and also lower than the 2.9% reading the previous month.
Investors will be watching for a slew of key Chinese economic data, expected later today.
Stocks on the Move
Toyota Motor dropped 2.6% after it guided for a larger than expected 35% drop in full year profit Friday last week and said the strong yen was making it difficult to justify production in Japan.
Other auto-makers were also in the red as shares of Honda eased 2.1% and Suzuki lost 1.6%. Mazda was down 1.5% while Nissan slipped 1%.
Kansai Electric Power was off 4.1% after the utility asked customers Friday last week to reduce power consumption to compensate for lost capacity. Brokerage Morgan Stanley UJF cut its target share price on the company.
Tepco was down 2.6%. Other power utilities were also in the red with Hokuriku Electric losing 3.2%, Chubu Electric losing 2.3%, and Kyushu Electric down 4.6%.
Shares of Japan Tobacco dropped 4% after the company said Friday its May sales fell steeply due to the damage caused to its production facilities in the March 11 earthquake.
Exporter stocks declined on the back of the stronger yen. Sony was down 0.6% and camera-maker Canon declined 1.3%.
Weak crude prices weighed on energy shares across the region as the benchmark Nymex contract dropped below $99 a barrel over the weekend.
Light, sweet crude oil for July delivery later pared losses to trade at $99.27, just two cents below Friday's New York close.
In Tokyo, Japan Petroleum Exploration Co slid 1.8%. Inpex Corp. was off 1.5%.
Energy shares fell in Hong Kong as CNOOC and PetroChina both eased 1.8% each. An index heavyweight on the mainland as well, PetroChina shares fell 1.7% on the Shanghai Composite.
But the benchmark was also dragged down by property stocks after the Hong Kong Monetary Authority on Friday announced measures to limit the size of mortgages for high-end residential properties.
Agile Property Holdings and Sino-Ocean Land Holdings both lost 3.8% each. China Vanke Co was down 2.1% and Greentown China Holdings was off 3%.
In Mumbai, index heavyweight Reliance Industries was down 2.1%. The retail-to-refineries diversified major said it will buy out Bharti's stake in its two insurance joint ventures with French company Axa.
Bharti Airtel was up 0.6%.
Hindalco, Maruti, DLF and Tata Power were the other big losers, down in a range between 1.3% and 1.8%.