Asian Stocks Close Lower Led By Banking Slump And Citigroup News

Tokyo, Japan (AHN) - Asian markets dropped on Thursday for the first time in five consecutive sessions as stocks in major markets like Japan fell amid renewed negative sentiments over the weakening U.S. economy led by credit market slumps.

Additional downward momentum was added by the shares of financial firms after the news that Citigroup is likely to incur more losses in the upcoming months.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped by 0.8 percent to 140.29 as late afternoon in Tokyo.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 average closed lower by 102.05 points or 0.80 percent at 12,604.58 points led by the shares of Toyota Motor Corp. after the export of U.S. durable-goods orders fell.

Japan's largest automaker, Toyota Motor, which gets 37 percent of its sales from North America, fell by 2.9 percent to $51 followed by Nissan down by 3.6 percent to $8 on Thursday.

In the financial sector, Mitsubishi UFJ shed 2.1 percent to $8, while Mizuho Financial dropped by as much as 3.8 percent to settle at $3,813.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 index lost 0.2 percent to close down at 5,371 points led by shares of Commonwealth Bank, Australia's biggest mortgage provider, losing 1.9 percent to $38.

In the mining sector, stocks of BHP Billiton increased by 1.3 percent to $32, while Rio Tinto advanced 2.2 percent to settle at $110.

Financial firms in Asia were pulled lower when Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Meredith Whitney on late Wednesday said the bank may shed as much as $1.15 a share in its first quarter compared to its earlier loss estimate of $0.28.

According to the analyst, the bank may also write down as much as $9 billion on collateralized debt obligations and $2.1 billion on leveraged loans during its first quarter.

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index closed higher by 47.21 points or 0.21 percent at 22,664.22 points, led by the real estate stocks.

Hong Kong's largest real estate developer Cheung Kong rose as much as 3 percent after it announced that its profits increased by 53 percent. Shares of the developer ended up by 1.6 percent at 110.10 Hong Kong dollars.

In South Korea, the Kospi index closed lower by 0.2 percent to 1,676.24 points, while, in New Zealand, the NZX 50 index lost by 0.6 percent to 3,404.55 points.

After leading Asian region early this week, Taiwan's Weighted index also closed down on Thursday by 1.9 percent at 8,605.95 points.

In the mainland China, the Shanghai composite index dropped by 5.4 percent to close at 3,411 points on Thursday led by the shares of Baoshan Iron & Steel, the mainland's largest alloy-maker, dropping by 9 percent to 13.06 yuan.

Baoshan Iron & Steel reported that it registered 2.7 percent of loss in the 2007 earnings report due to the rising raw-material prices.

Light, sweet crude oil futures for May delivery increased by $1.30 to $107.20 a barrel in electronic trading on Thursday.