Asian Stocks: Japan's Nikkei Drops; Taiwan, Singapore Advance
By Michael Tsang
quote.bloomberg.com
Tokyo, March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average fell, as investors judged the benchmark index's four-day, 12 percent rally as excessive given concerns the economy won't recover any time soon. Ito-Yokado Co. and other companies that depend on domestic sales dropped.
The Nikkei shed 0.4 percent to 11,404.00, a day after its biggest rally in almost a year. The Topix index lost 0.1 percent to 1078.00. Fewer than half of the Topix's sub-indexes rose, after all but one gained yesterday, on concern government measures to support stock prices won't be enough to sustain a rally past the end of the fiscal year on March 31.
``The market is taking a breather after gaining too much in the short term,'' said Hajime Yagi, senior portfolio manager at Meiji Dresdner Asset Management Co., which handles about $1 billion in Japanese equities.
In other markets, chipmakers advanced on signs the industry is recovering, boosting Taiwan's TWSE Index by 1.9 percent and Singapore's Straits Times Index by 1 percent. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 0.6 percent, led by Rio Tinto Ltd. on expectations industrial demand for metals will recover as economies emerge from recession. |
