Financial stocks pull down Asian markets (MarketWatch) (15-02-2008)

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Asian markets followed Wall Street’s retreat on Friday with financials leading declines as they lost some of their sharp gains from the previous session.

Japan's Nikkei 225 Average dropped 1.5% to end the morning session at 13,423.93, after it soared 4.3% in the previous session, finally ending 0.03% or 3.89 points to 13,622.56. The broader Topix index shed 0.9% at 1,321.10.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index reversed session losses to end 126.75 points or 0.53% up at 24,148.43 and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index gained 292.53 points or 2.16% at 13,843.52.

China's Shanghai Composite shed 1.8% at 4,472.60. Elsewhere, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.7% to 5,588.60, South Korea's Kospi lost 1% at 1,680.26, New Zealand's NZX 50 index gave up 1.3% at 3,502.89 and Taiwan's Weighted index lost 0.7% at 7,812.45.

In Singapore, the Straits Times Index fell 0.9% to 3,017.66 a day after data showed its economy shrank in the October-December period from the previous quarter.

The decline in New Zealand came after data showed that the country's retail sales growth grew at a lower-than-expected 0.3% during the quarter ended Dec. 31, according to reports.

Financial shares ranked among the losers, with shares of Sompo Japan Insurance losing 2.5%. Mizuho Financial Group lost 0.68%, Sumitomo dropped 2.1%, while Mitsubishi UFJ declined by 1.67. In Sydney, Macquarie's stock shed 5%, while in Seoul, Korea Exchange Bank sank 5.2%.

In Hong Kong, shares of HSBC Holdings lost 2.2% while among China-related issues, Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China dropped 3.3%. In Taipei, shares of Cathay Financial Holding slid 1.6%.

Shares of DBS Group Holdings climbed 1.3% in spite of its quarterly net profit dropping 18% from a year-ago on subprime-linked writedowns, as the results were better than expected by Bloomberg and Reuters surveys.

Resource firms defied the trend, on a recent recovery in aluminum prices, with Alumina surging 6.6% in Sydney and Aluminum Corp. of China climbing 0.3% in Hong Kong.

Source: MarketWatch