Asian Stocks Drop for First Time in Three Days

Asian stocks fell for the first time in three days, led by Samsung Electronics Co., after South Korea's President agreed to an independent probe of corruption allegations involving the country's biggest company.

HSBC Holdings Plc dropped from a one-week high in Hong Kong after Goldman, Sachs & Co. said Europe's biggest bank may have to write down $12 billion more for bad debts. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan's biggest publicly traded lender, reversed earlier losses after Citigroup Inc. said it will raise $7.5 billion by selling a stake to an Abu Dhabi government fund.

There's not much hopeful talk in the market, said Eom Giyo, who helps manage the equivalent of $3.2 billion at Woori Credit Suisse Asset Management Co. in Seoul. Writedowns are increasing at financial institutions, and now we hear allegations of bad accounting at Samsung Group.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.9 percent to 157.02 as of 1:29 p.m. in Tokyo, trimming an earlier decline of as much as 2.1 percent. The benchmark rose 3 percent in the previous two sessions.

Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average slipped 0.6 percent to 15,044.96, after earlier sliding as much as 2.2 percent. Sony Corp. jumped after sales of its PlayStation 3 video-game console more than tripled last week as price cuts drew customers after the Thanksgiving holiday.

Benchmarks declined in other markets open for trading, except for New Zealand.

U.S. stocks fell yesterday, sending the Standard & Poor's 500 Index to its biggest drop in more than two weeks. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the largest U.S. mortgage-finance companies, tumbled after UBS AG said higher credit costs will cause earnings growth to slow.

Source - Bloomberg