By Chris Oliver, MarketWatch
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Asian stock indexes ended generally lower Wednesday, with falling commodity prices dragging on resource shares.
Australian stocks had their second straight down session, weighed by concerns over the financial impact of devastating floods.
The S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.6%.
Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.2%, though the broader Topix index was virtually unchanged.
The Kospi ended down 0.1% in Seoul, China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.5% and Taiwan’s Taiex fell 1.7%.
Hong Kong was among the few winners, with the Hang Seng index adding 0.4% for its sixth straight positive session.
“It’s really [due to] profit taking after a sharp rise over the last couple of weeks, but underlying strength is still there,” Yoji Takeda, director of RBC Investment Management Asia Ltd. in Hong Kong, said about the action around the region.
The flooding in Australia’s coal-rich Queensland state hit mining shares, with BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP 89.34, -2.00, -2.19%) (AU:BHP 45.01, -0.44, -0.97%) down 1%, Rio Tinto PLC (AU:RIO 85.07, -0.73, -0.85%) (RIO 69.22, -1.86, -2.62%) down 0.9% and Fortescue Metals Group (AU:FMG 6.40, -0.05, -0.78%) down 0.8%.
Insurance companies, however, recovered some ground after recent declines.
Australia Group (AU:IAG 3.88, +0.06, +1.57%) clawed back 1.6% and QBE Insurance Group (AU:QBE 17.85, +0.08, +0.45%) regained 0.5%.
Nick Paltoglou, senior client advisor at Ord Minnett, said weaker prices for “hard” commodities such as gold, copper and oil, and concerns about how China will deal with inflation, also dragged on the market. But growing interest in global food demand helped companies with exposure to “soft” commodities.
GrainCorp (AU:GNC 6.94, +0.26, +3.89%) , which dropped sharply late last year on worries over rain-delayed harvests, gained 3.9% after it said Tuesday that grain received into its network rose more than 50% from Dec. 20 to 10.7 million metric tons.
In Japan, smartphone-related stocks dominated otherwise lackluster market action.
Sharp Corporation (JP:6753 853.00, +16.00, +1.91%) (SHCAY 10.39, +0.08, +0.78%) ended up 3% following a Nikkei report that idled LCD production lines at two factories had resumed operations.
Renesas Electronics (JP:6723 918.00, +90.00, +10.87%) (RNECY 5.08, +0.27, +5.61%) added 11% after Nikkei reports that the company has developed a chip that will allow 16-megapixel images on smartphone cameras for the first time.
Yahoo Japan (JP:4689 30,200, -1,500, -4.73%) (YAHOY 128.06, -1.44, -1.11%) lost 4.7% as Goldman Sachs resumed coverage with a sell rating, saying smartphones and social-media sites such as Facebook could put pressure on the company by diverting traffic away from portal sites.
