Asian shares fall as auto, games firms hurt Tokyo

HONG KONG: Asian markets slipped Tuesday, led by Tokyo as game-linked stocks fell on weak earnings from Nintendo, while auto firms were hurt by an outlook downgrade for Toyota, Nissan and Honda.

Trade was edgy ahead of fresh corporate results this week and the US Federal Reserve's monthly monetary policy meeting, with investors looking to see whether it decides to begin tightening measures.

Tokyo's Nikkei shed 1.17 percent, or 113.27 points, to end at 9,558.69 and Hong Kong fell 0.54 percent, or 130.93 points, to 24,007.38.

Shanghai slipped 0.88 percent, or 25.97 points, to 2,938.98 and Seoul closed 0.44 percent, or 9.71 points, off at 2,206.29.

Sydney was closed for a public holiday.

In Japan gaming giant Nintendo said on Monday that net profit for the year to March slumped 66.1 percent, a second straight yearly fall as sales tumbled 29 percent.

The news sent Nintendo down 1.57 percent to 20,010 yen on Tuesday, despite the firm also saying that it was planning to unveil a successor to its hugely popular Wii console in 2012.

"A drop in sales to some extent was expected, but investors were further disappointed by the lack of share reaction to the announcement of a new game console," Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management, told Dow Jones Newswires.

The weak data and strengthening yen sent other games-related firms down, with Sony off 2.11 percent.

Auto shares fell after Toyota, Nissan and Honda were all put on alert by Standard & Poor's that they could have their credit ratings downgraded following the impact of the March 11 quake and tsunami on sales and output.

The warning that their outlook had been revised down to "negative" from "stable" came after carmakers had revealed that production at home slumped last month as factories were closed and many areas faced power outages.

Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, said that March production in Japan plunged 62.7 percent year-on-year, while Nissan's output fell 52.4 percent and Honda Motor's output plunged 62.9 percent because of the quake.

Toyota tumbled 2.44 percent to 3,195 yen and Honda fell 1.61 percent to 3,055. However, Nissan edged up 0.26 percent to 761 after recovering from early losses.

On currency markets the euro edged up to $1.4600 in early European trade from $1.4572 in New York late Monday. The single European currency was flat at 119.24 yen.

The dollar fell to a one-month low of 81.56 yen in early trade but later edged back to 81.65 yen compared with 81.82 yen in New York.

Eyes are on the Fed meeting that ends on Wednesday to see whether the policy panel extends the $600 billion stimulus put into action last year, which would send the dollar racing.

Hopes had until recently been high that the bank would rein in the stimulus but with oil prices surging in recent months, dealers are not so sure.

Oil edged down as dealers booked profits after last week's gains.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in June, lost 95 cents to $111.33 a barrel, while Brent North Sea crude for June dipped 46 cents to $123.20 in the afternoon.

Gold closed at $1,504.00-$1,505.00 an ounce in Hong Kong, down from Thursday's finish of $1,507.50-$1,508.50. Markets were closed on Friday and Monday for a public holiday.

Taipei ended flat, edging down 2.61 points to 8,948.14.

EVA Airways was 0.52 percent lower at Tw$28.7 while China Steel rose 0.43 percent to Tw$35.2.

Manila fell 0.57 percent, or 24.80 points, to 4,305.57.

Alliance Global fell 0.3 percent to 11.80 pesos, Lepanto Consolidated Mining shed 10.4 percent to 60 centavos and Philippine Long Distance Telephone lost 0.2 percent to 2,456.

Wellington ended 0.17 percent, or 5.92 points, lower at 3,486.48.

Fletcher Building lost 0.2 percent to NZ$9.19 and Air New Zealand shed 0.9 percent to NZ$1.11.