Major Asian markets down on global slowdown concerns

SINGAPORE — Major Asian stock markets fell yesterday amid concerns global economic growth will slow later this year as government stimulus spending winds down.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average shed 28.90 points, or 0.3 percent, to 10,382.20, reversing gains from the morning session. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 0.5 percent to 20,040.42 while stocks in mainland China slipped 0.1 percent. South Korea’s Kospi was off 0.6 percent at 1,661.03.

“There are concerns the fiscal and monetary stimulus will not be maintained long enough,” said Dariusz Kowalczyk, chief investment strategist for SJS Markets in Hong Kong. “Private sector demand is unlikely to be strong enough to replace it because unemployment rates in the US and Europe are too high.”

Kowalczyk said he expects the global economy, which will likely grow at least four percent in the second quarter, to start contracting again by the fourth quarter.

Investors are also eyeing China’s red-hot property market, which could trigger further government measures to cool price increases. Real estate values in a survey of 70 Chinese cities rose 13 percent in April.

Elsewhere in Asia, India and Malaysia’s markets were little changed. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index was up 0.4 percent while Indonesia and Thailand added 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent respectively.

In New York on Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 36.88 points, or 0.3 percent, to 10,748.26. While the Dow dropped as much as 100 points at one point, it managed to close slightly lower as investors set aside worries about Europe’s debt struggles.

Germany, Europe’s richest nation, backed a $1-trillion rescue package Tuesday for Europe’s troubled currency union as European Union officials readied tougher oversight over budgets and economies of most member countries in an effort to contain the region’s troubling debt crisis.

In currencies, the dollar fell to 92.58 yen in Tokyo from ¥92.71 in New York late Tuesday. The euro dropped to $1.2626 from $1.2641.

Benchmark crude for June delivery was down 75 cents to $75.63 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The June contract fell 43 cents to settle at $76.37 on Tuesday.