Asian Stocks Outside Japan Fall on Fed Stimulus Comments

Asian stocks outside Japan fell after minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s last meeting signaled U.S. stimulus may be reduced in coming months. Japanese stocks rose as the yen dropped.

Samsung Electronics Co., South Korea’s biggest consumer electronics maker that gets 22 percent of its revenue in America, declined 1.8 percent. Australand Property Group fell 3.9 percent in Sydney after dropping 3.4 percent yesterday as CapitaLand Ltd. sells part of its 59 percent stake in the developer. Mitsubishi Estate Co. declined 0.6 percent in Tokyo as the developer’s rating was cut at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index declined 0.7 percent to 471.67 as of 10:21 a.m. in Tokyo. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index, which includes Japanese shares, dropped 0.2 percent to 141.87. Japan’s Topix (TPX) index rose 1 percent as the yen slid against all of its 16 major counterparts.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 1.9 percent before the conclusion of a central bank meeting today, at which economists forecast no change to monetary policy. The Bank of Japan will at some stage alter its target of 2 percent inflation in two years as unprecedented bond-buying proves insufficient to achieve the goal, economists forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.

(Source: Bloomberg)