Asian stocks fell for the first time in three days as Japan Airlines Corp and Asiana Airlines Inc plunged on debt concerns and as lower oil and gold prices dragged down commodity producers.
Japan Airlines, (JAL), tumbled to a record low in Tokyo on speculation it will file for bankruptcy. Asiana lost 6.9 per cent in Seoul after the carrier’s parent said it may restructure debt at affiliates. PetroChina Co, China’s No 1 oil producer, lost 1.1 per cent in Hong Kong, and Newcrest Mining Ltd, Australia’s largest gold producer, sank 0.9 per cent in Sydney. BHP Billiton Ltd, the world’s biggest mining company, dropped 0.5 per cent.
“Concern about JAL’s legal liquidation is weighing on stocks,” said Yoshihiro Ito, senior strategist at Tokyo-based Okasan Asset Management Co, which oversees about $8.2 billion.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.5 per cent to 120.09 as of 7:17 pm in Tokyo, with twice as many stocks declining as advancing. Nine of the index’s 10 industry groups slumped.
The gauge is headed for a 34 per cent gain this year, its biggest annual increase since 2003, as central banks worldwide reduced borrowing costs and governments boosted spending to shore up their economies. The index has fallen about 5 per cent this decade.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped 0.9 per cent to close at 10,546.44 on its last day of trading this year, today’s biggest drop among Asia-Pacific benchmarks. The measure has plunged 73 per cent since it rose to an intraday record of 38,957.44 on the final business day of 1989, making it the world’s worst-performing equity index in the period.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was little changed today. The Shanghai Composite Index in China added 1.6 per cent.
Futures on Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.5 per cent. The index decreased for the first time in seven days yesterday in New York, slipping 0.1 per cent.
