Asian Shares Fall, Bank Leads Australia Lower

       

Shares in Asia fell, with Australian banks weighing on that market for the second-straight day, as investors elsewhere look ahead to a meeting by Japan's central bank.
        The S&P ASX 200 was off 1.7%, the Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.3% and South Korea's Kospi lost 0.5%. The losses reflect a slump in U.S. shares overnight following a raft of disappointing earnings from media companies.
        In Australia, a gauge of financial-sector stocks was down 2%, on expectations that big banks will announce further capital raising. Commonwealth Bank of Australia was 1.6% lower, National Australia Bank Ltd. was down 1.7% and Westpac Banking Corp. was 2.2% lower. The losses in banking shares are have helped push Australia's broader market down 3.3% so far this week.
        Shares of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group are down 6.9% after the firm announced a $3 billion capital raising. That announcement turned attention to the other members of the big four banks, which will need to get in line with regulators' call for big banks to increase the level of capital held against potential home-loan losses.
        Investors in Australia also will assess a statement from the Reserve Bank of Australia's monetary-policy meeting later Friday for growth and inflation forecasts.
        Australia's energy stocks are also weaker following an overnight drop in oil prices, although Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was last up 0.2% at $49.66 in Asia trade.
        In Japan, investors are awaiting a Bank of Japan meeting that may give cues for a further increase in its quantitative easing program.
        "What's important is how Gov. (Haruhiko) Kuroda is going to explain the lower crude oil prices as it relates to policy plans" says Eiji Kinouchi, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities. Japan is still a long way off from hitting its inflation target of 2% by the middle of 2016.
        The Japanese yen traded around 124.69 against the U.S. dollar ahead of U.S. jobs data later Friday. It traded at 124.73 late in Asia Thursday.
        In China, investors are weighing the prospect of traders withdrawing from the market to subscribe for new shares against further support from the government for the market.
        The Shanghai Composite Index is flat for the week to date, while the Hang Seng Index is down 1.1%.
        The Shanghai Composite Index opened 0.9% higher at 3692.61 while the smaller Shenzhen Composite rose 0.9% to 2132.34.
        Write to Chao Deng at Chao.Deng@wsj.com
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        (END) Dow Jones Newswires

        August 06, 2015 21:50 ET (01:50 GMT)

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