Asian shares fall, auto stocks hit Tokyo

HONG KONG: Asian markets slipped Tuesday, led by Tokyo as game-linked stocks fell on weak earnings from Nintendo, while auto firms were hurt by an outlook downgrade for Toyota, Nissan and Honda.

Trade was edgy ahead of fresh corporate results this week and the US Federal Reserve's monthly monetary policy meeting, with investors looking to see whether it decides to begin tightening measures.

Tokyo's Nikkei shed 1.17 percent, or 113.27 points, to end at 9,558.69 and Hong Kong fell 0.54 percent, or 130.93 points, to 24,007.38. Shanghai slipped 0.88 percent, or 25.97 points, to 2,938.98 and Seoul closed 0.44 percent, or 9.71 points, off at 2,206.29. Sydney was closed for a public holiday.

In Japan gaming giant Nintendo said on Monday that net profit for the year to March slumped 66.1 percent, a second straight yearly fall as sales tumbled 29 percent. The news sent Nintendo down 1.57 percent to 20,010 yen on Tuesday, despite the firm also saying that it was planning to unveil a successor to its hugely popular Wii console in 2012.

"A drop in sales to some extent was expected, but investors were further disappointed by the lack of share reaction to the announcement of a new game console," Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management, told Dow Jones Newswires.

The weak data and strengthening yen sent other games-related firms down, with Sony off 2.11 percent . Auto shares fell after Toyota, Nissan and Honda were all put on alert by Standard & Poor's that they could have their credit ratings downgraded following the impact of the March 11 quake and tsunami on sales and output.

Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, said that March production in Japan plunged 62.7 percent year-on-year, while Nissan's output fell 52.4 percent and Honda Motor's output plunged 62.9 percent because of the quake.

Toyota tumbled 2.44 percent to 3,195 yen and Honda fell 1.61 percent to 3,055. However, Nissan edged up 0.26 percent to 761 after recovering from early losses. (AFP)