BL: Asia Stocks Post Biggest Loss in a Month on Earnings Outlook
By Chen Shiyin and Patrick Rial
Enlarge Image/Details
April 14 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks fell the most in a month, led by banks and consumer electronics makers, after Group of Seven finance ministers said global economic prospects have weakened, denting the outlook for earnings.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. led declines on concern the eight-month rout in credit markets isn't over. Honda Motor Co. and Samsung Electronics Co. slumped after General Electric Co. said profit unexpectedly fell. Canon Inc. dropped to a two-week low after the Nikkei newspaper said profit this quarter may decrease 16 percent.
``There are a lot of earnings announcements coming out this week that the market is very focused on,'' Koichi Takatsuka, a fund manager at Tokyo-based United Investments Co., said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 2.1 percent to 142.60 as of 10:11 a.m. in Tokyo, set for its biggest decline since March 17 and ending a two-day, 1.9 percent rally. All 10 of the benchmark's industry groups dropped.
Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 2.9 percent to 12,938.28, heading for its largest loss since March 17. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index slumped 2 percent, led by Toll Holdings Ltd. after Australia's biggest freight company scrapped plans to sell its 62 percent stake in Virgin Blue Holdings Ltd.
U.S. stocks dropped the most in three weeks on April 11, led by GE, after the world's biggest maker of power-plant turbines, jet engines and locomotives said first-quarter earnings plunged 12 percent because of failed asset sales and losses at its finance businesses.
At the International Monetary Fund's semi-annual meetings in Washington yesterday, officials urged banks to take steps to relieve the credit squeeze, with Italian Finance Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa saying there may be further ``bad news.''
To contact the reporter for this story: Chen Shiyin in Singapore at schen37@bloomberg.net; Patrick Rial in Tokyo at prial@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: April 13, 2008 21:22 EDT
AI
