Asian shares fall on Japan fears, Wall Street loss

HONG KONG: Asian shares slipped on Wednesday as ongoing concerns over Japan's nuclear crisis were compounded by a heavy loss on Wall Street.

Tokyo was 0.11 percent lower by the break, Hong Kong fell 0.41 percent, Sydney dipped 0.21 percent and Shanghai gave up 0.61 percent while Seoul dropped 0.28 percent.

Investors extended their selling from Tuesday when Japan raised the crisis level at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to the same as Chernobyl in 1986 after it was hit by a series of strong aftershocks from the March 11 quake.

"Overall sentiment is still cautious and risk-averse," Takuya Yamada, a senior portfolio manager at ITC Investment Partners, told Dow Jones Newswires.

And Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ analyst Teppei Ino said: "The situation in the Fukushima plant will keep drawing the market's attention."

Tokyo's Nikkei index moved in and out of positive territory, with a weaker yen which was lifted by earlier gains on equity markets helping exporters.

The dollar fetched 83.87 yen in Tokyo morning trading, up from 83.56 in New York late Tuesday.

The euro eased to $1.4472 from 1.4477. The single European currency rose to 121.42 yen from 120.93.

However, sentiment was hurt by Toyota's announcement that it would temporarily suspend production at five factories in Europe for several days due to a parts shortage caused by last month's devastating quake.

The automaker has previously said it will suspend all output at most of its 14 North American factories for four to five weekdays this month.

Last week it said production at its factories in Japan will restart from 18 April until 27 April at 50 percent of normal pace.

Commodities firms were hit as the price of oil fell for a third straight day on the back of forecasts that demand for oil would ease due to their recent spike at two and a half year highs.

This week the International Energy Agency warned that crude's recent run risked curtailing global demand for energy and posed a "real risk" of derailing the world's economic recovery.

Oil cartel OPEC on Tuesday agreed with the that assessment, adding oil's prices were "out of step with the realities of supply and demand".

In early Asian trade New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, slipped 32 cents to $105.93 per barrel and Brent North Sea crude for May shed 17 cents to $120.75.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 0.95 percent Tuesday due to the Japan crisis, and following worse-than-expected first quarter results from aluminium giant Alcoa and a poor performance from energy plays.

Gold opened at $1,455.00-$1,456.00 an ounce in Hong Kong, down from Monday's close of $1,460.00-$1,461.00.