Le Asian bags they fell for the second day in a row, led by the performance of Japanese equities, after US manufacturing data came in lower than expected and the yen hit a four-week high against the US dollar, depressing export companies' prospects. Sony, which makes 19% of its revenue in the US, fell 2,4% in Tokyo. Toyota Motor, the world's largest automaker, slipped 1,5% on news of the largest fall in sales in six quarters, due to the end of government incentives.
THEMSCI Asia Pacific index it fell 0,4% to 133.58 as of 9:33 am in Tokyo before the opening of the Chinese and Hong Kong markets. The index fell 1% on Monday in its biggest loss in two weeks. The MSCI Asia Pacific Excluding Japan index rose by 0,2% to 472.83. The Topix suffered a 1,8% halt on the eve of the Japanese Central Bank meeting scheduled for April 3-4. South Korea's Kospi was little changed in the morning, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 0,4% and New Zealand's NZX 50 was down less than 0,1%. The New Zealand, Australian and Hong Kong markets have reopened after the Easter break. “Expectations have soared after some economic data beat forecasts,” said Nader Naeimi, head of dynamic asset allocation at AMP Capital Investors. “We could now go through a period where other economic data will fall short of expectations, depressing markets.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-04-02/asian-stocks-decline-as-u-s-manufacturing-misses-yen-rises.html
