By Jonathan Burgos and Masaki Kondo
June 17 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks fell, led by mining companies and banks, on concern the global economic recovery may falter as U.S. President Barack Obama predicted the nation’s unemployment rate will rise to 10 percent.
BHP Billiton Ltd. sank 3.2 percent in Sydney as the cost of protecting its debt rose on speculation the world’s biggest mining company may be planning an acquisition. Westpac Banking Corp., Australia’s biggest lender by market value, dropped 2.3 percent after a government official said it’s too soon to say the economy avoided recession. Mitsubishi Corp., which gets more than half of its profit from commodities, slipped 1.5 percent after metal prices dropped.
“Some people are taking profit as the market has risen too fast,” said Naoki Fujiwara, who oversees the equivalent of $3.7 billion at Shinkin Asset Management Co. in Tokyo. “We can’t expect a full recovery in commodity prices until demand starts to pick up.”
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.6 percent to 101.45 at 12:31 p.m. in Tokyo, having swung between gains and losses at least seven times. A 3.5 percent drop in the past three days pared the gauge’s rally from a five-year low on March 9 to 44 percent. Stocks on the index trade at 23 times estimated profit, more than the MSCI World Index’s 15 times, Bloomberg data show.
In an interview with Bloomberg News, U.S. President Obama chided Wall Street financiers for forgetting how close the country’s economy came to collapsing. Obama is due to unveil his plan to revamp financial market regulation later today.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average added 0.4 percent to 9,791.97 after Morgan Stanley upgraded its view on the nation’s housing industry. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 1.8 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 1.7 percent.
To contact the reporters for this story: Jonathan Burgos in Singapore at jburgos4@bloomberg.net.
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