Asian Stocks Fluctuate as Financial Companies Drop, Commodity Shares Gain

Asian stocks fell, cutting the MSCI Asia Pacific Index’s biggest monthly gain since May 2009, amid concern Europe’s debt crisis will slow a global economic recovery and after Nintendo Co. cut its profit forecast.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan’s biggest publicly traded bank, lost 2 percent. National Australia Bank Ltd. dropped 0.6 percent after UBS AG cut its investment rating. Nintendo Co., the world’s largest maker of video-game machines, sank 9 percent in Osaka, Japan. Tokyo Electric Power Co., Asia’s largest utility, dropped 2.4 percent, extending yesterday’s plunge on a plan to sell stock.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.6 percent to 126.77 as of 10:56 a.m. in Tokyo, with about two shares declining for each that advanced.

“Investors are likely to be in a wait-and-see mood,” said Mitsushige Akino, who oversees about $450 million in assets in Tokyo at Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co. “It’s the end of the month today.”

The MSCI index is on course for a 9.3 percent increase in September, the largest monthly advance since May 2009. The 12 percent climb in the three months ending today is the biggest quarterly increase of the past year.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 0.4 percent today, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index slid 0.8 percent and South Korea’s Kospi Index was little changed.

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index were little changed. The index retreated 0.3 percent yesterday in New York, trimming its best September rally since 1939. U.S. banks followed European lenders lower on concern the region’s most- indebted nations will struggle to finance budget deficits.

Protests in Europe

Spain’s top credit rating at Moody’s Investors Service probably will be cut, possibly this week, according to investors managing about $700 billion. Ireland will today announce the cost of bailing out Anglo Irish Bank Corp.

More than 100,000 protesters descended on Brussels before a meeting between labor union members and European Commission President Jose Barroso, organizers said. Spanish workers disrupted transportation and television broadcasts in the first general strike in eight years. In Athens, rail, communications and port workers staged strikes. Police in Dublin made an arrest after a truck damaged the front gates of the parliament building.

Financial companies were the heaviest drag on the MSCI index among its 10 industry groups. Mitsubishi UFJ lost 2 percent to 396 yen in Tokyo, and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., Japan’s second-largest publicly traded bank, dropped 2.3 percent to 2,472 yen.

Banks Decline

In Sydney, National Australia Bank declined 0.6 percent to A$25.75 after UBS cut its rating to “neutral” from “buy.”

Westpac Banking Corp., Australia’s second-biggest lender by market value, retreated 0.9 percent to A$23.50. Rob Coombe, the lender’s head of retail and business banking, said Australia’s largest banks may be forced to raise borrowing costs in addition to a potential central-bank interest-rate increase, according to the Australian newspaper.

The MSCI gauge has advanced 5.7 percent this year on speculation growth in corporate profits will weather Europe’s debt crisis, Chinese steps to curb property-price inflation and concern about the pace of a U.S. economic rebound.

Nintendo plunged 9 percent to 20,940 yen, the biggest drop since January 2009 and the heaviest single drag on the MSCI index. The company slashed its annual profit forecast by 55 percent and said it won’t release its 3DS handheld game player in time for the year-end holiday season.

Tokyo Electric dropped 2.4 percent to 2,054 yen in Tokyo, extending yesterday’s 7.8 percent decline. The company said yesterday after markets closed that it plans to raise as much as 555 billion yen by selling shares to the public. The Nikkei newspaper reported a planned share sale yesterday morning.

Korea Electric Power Corp. retreated 1.2 percent to 29,400 won in Seoul. South Korea’s biggest electricity producer agreed to buy a 40 percent stake in a Philippine power plant for $400 million from BG Group Plc.