Asian stocks mixed, weak data cancel Wall St lead

HONG KONG: Asian stocks were mixed Wednesday as a strong lead from Wall Street was cancelled out by profit-taking as well as negative regional news and political uncertainty in Japan.

Downbeat figures from China showing purchasing managers were less optimistic over future growth than at any time in the last nine months sent Shanghai lower.

Negative growth numbers from Australia, showing the economy's worst quarter-on-quarter performance in two decades, also affected sentiment.

Sydney ended flat, dipping 1.0 point to 4,707.3, while Seoul was also virtually unchanged, edging down 1.13 points to 2,141.34.

Hong Kong closed 0.24 percent, or 57.70 points lower at 23,626.43 and Shanghai was flat, dipped 0.10 points to 2,743.57 after data showed domestic manufacturing expanded at a slower pace in May, dealers said.

Tokyo ended up 0.27 percent, or 25.88 points, 9,719.61.

Wednesday's weak performance followed a strong rally across the region the day before.

Dealers were reacting to the release of the official purchasing managers' index, which fell to 52.0 in May -- the lowest level in nine months -- from 52.9 in April, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said in a statement.

A separate PMI by HSBC fell to 51.6 in May from 51.8 in April.

A reading above 50 indicates the sector is expanding while a reading below 50 indicates contraction.

Although the figures suggest production is still growing, they follow a number of measures by Beijing aimed at cooling the red-hot economy and containing soaring consumer prices, including several interest rate hikes.

The HSBC figures are slightly better than preliminary data released by the banking giant last month, which showed a slip to 51.1 in May and fuelled fears of a Chinese slowdown, triggering a slump in Shanghai and Hong Kong shares.

Shanghai had its first positive day in more than a week on Tuesday.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said gross domestic product slumped 1.2 percent in Q1 from Q4, its largest quarterly fall since the March quarter of 1991, when Australia was in the grip of recession.

"Flooding which began in late December 2010 combined with cyclones in both Queensland and Western Australia have had a significant impact on the March quarter activity," the ABS said.

In Tokyo, Japanese auto giant Toyota said its domestic production would return to about 90 percent of its pre-quake level in June thanks to a faster-than-expected recovery of parts supplies.

The market, however, appeared unimpressed by the announcement, with Toyota shares down 0.58 percent at 3,380 yen.

After rising nearly two percent Tuesday, traders were sitting back with eyes on an expected no-confidence motion in Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan later in the week.

Kan is under pressure after opposition lawmakers demanded his resignation over his handling of the nuclear crisis stemming from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

"There is still a lack of buying incentives for Japanese shares to break out of range-bound trading," said Okasan Securities strategist Hideyuki Ishiguro.

Wall Street put in a commendable performance Tuesday, shaking off weak US economic data with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing up 128.21 points (1.03 percent) at 12,569.79.

Asian trading was "pretty cautious after (Tuesday's) rally," said RBS head of domestic sales trading, Justin Gallagher, in Sydney.

"US economic data have been very weak. It supports some of the scepticism about the US reporting season... that it was only strong because of QE2 (quantitative easing), which wasn't sustainable."

The euro rose against the dollar helped by easing concerns over Greece's debt crisis.

The unit bought $1.4408 in Tokyo morning trading, against $1.4397 in New York late Tuesday. The European single currency fetched 117.23 yen, slightly down from 117.26 yen. The dollar eased to 81.36 yen from 81.50 yen.

Sentiment on the euro brightened in the wake of a Wall Street Journal report Tuesday saying Germany was considering abandoning its push for an early rescheduling of Greek bonds and showing flexibility on new aid.

On oil markets New York's main contract, light sweet crude for July delivery, rose 16 cents to $102.86 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for July delivery remained unchanged at $116.73 in the afternoon.

Gold closed at $1,530.50-$1,531.50 per ounce, down from its Tuesday close of $1,539.00-$1,540.00.

-- Singapore closed up 0.41 percent, or 12.94 points, at 3,172.87.

DBS Bank gained 0.68 percent to Sg$14.90 and SingTel was 1.25 percent higher at Sg$3.25.

-- Taipei rose 0.82 percent, or 73.51 points, to 9,062.35.

Formosa Plastics gained 3.18 percent to Tw$113.5 and leading smartphone maker HTC was 2.05 percent higher at Tw$1,245.

-- Manila closed up 0.98 percent, or 41.82 points, at 4,286.46.

San Miguel gained 2.9 percent to 114 pesos and Lepanto Consolidated added 1.1 percent to 0.90 pesos while Philippine Long Distance Telephone jumped 3.3 percent to 2,404 pesos.

-- Wellington gained 0.11 percent, or 3.90 points, to 3,551.54.

Telecom rose 0.6 percent to NZ$2.43 and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare added 2.1 percent to NZ$2.94.

-- Jakarta was flat, gaining 0.79 points to 3,837.75.

-- Kuala Lumpur ended down 0.12 percent, or 1.87 points, at 1,556.42.

Banking firm RHB Capital added 7.4 percent to 9.90 ringgit and Malaysia Airports Holdings gained 3.5 percent to 6.59 ringgit while Malayan Banking eased 1.6 percent to 8.77 ringgit and power giant Tenaga Nasional lost 0.1 percent to 7.10 ringgit.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011