Asian stocks started the week lower, ending a positive nine-day period. The longest consecutive period with positive sign this year ended mainly due to the poor performance of telecommunications and technology stocks.
Among the stocks in the spotlight, Naver plunged 4,7% in Seoul, while SoftBank fell 4,3% in Tokyo. Fanuc, a Japanese manufacturer of industrial equipment fell 1,9%, driving industrial stocks lower. Still in Japan, the pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo instead grew by 4% on the news that the Indian Sun Pharmaceutical Industries had agreed to buy Ranbaxy Laboratories for four billion dollars. Daiichi owns 63,5% of Ranbaxy.
The MSCI Asia Pacific index was down 0,5%, falling to 138.55 by 9:48am in Hong Kong. Seven of the ten industry groups featured in the measure were in decline. The Chinese and Thai markets are closed for holidays. The regional index rose last week to a two-month high thanks to positive data on the US economic front (which indicated a recovery after the winter slowdown due to bad weather conditions) and the announcement of economic stimuli to support the growth in China.
"US payroll data is below expectations and continues to show that the US recovery remains subdued," said Matthew Sherwood, head of investment markets research at Perpetual in Sydney. “This suggests that any moves by the Fed will be modest in size.”
The Japanese Topix index fell 1,2% at the same time as a strengthening yen (103,26 to the dollar). The Hang Seng fell 0,8 percent and mainland China's Hang Seng China Enterprises slipped 0,1 percent. Singapore's Straits Times declined 0,2% and the Taiex was down 0,5%.
