Asian markets retreat on falling crude oil prices (MarketWatch) (28-05-2008)

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- In the Asia Pacific region indices retreated on falling crude-oil prices, which hurt energy stocks such as Inpex Holdings Inc. in Tokyo, Woodside Petroleum in Sydney and Cnooc in Hong Kong.

Crude oil prices, which had reached a record high of $135.09 a barrel in the previous week, fell bringing the front-month July contract $3.34 down to $128.85 a barrel in a regular session overnight on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract recently dropped as much as 12 cents at $128.73 a barrel.

Among energy-related stocks, Inpex lost 3.1% in Tokyo and in Sydney, BHP Billiton dropped 2.4%, while Woodside Petroleum sank 3%. In Hong Kong, shares of Cnooc tumbled 3.7%.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 Average dropped 0.3% to 13,846.29 and the broader Topix index fell 0.5% to 1,361.25, unable to sustain early gains. In Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.9% to 5,664.20.

In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index recently slipped 0.1% to 24,256.93, after rising as high as 24,321.89 earlier in the day, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index was little changed at 13,324.27.

China's Shanghai Composite also moved in a range around break-even level, and was recently little changed at 3,374.01.

Elsewhere, New Zealand's NZX 50 index was little changed at 3,552.72 and South Korea's Kospi gave up early advances to drop 0.2% to 1,820.91. Singapore's Straits Times Index inched up 0.1% to 3,119.26 and Taiwan's Weighted index lost 0.3% to 8,752.12.

Some financials gained after an overnight advance on Wall Street, with National Australia Bank rising 1.1% and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group climbing 0.7% in Sydney, while in Tokyo, Citigroup Inc. rose 1.4% and Mizuho Financial Group rose 0.8%.

  Source MarketWatch