ASIA MARKETS: Nikkei Slumps Again As Asian Markets Decline

Japan stocks continue to fall after Friday's worst pullback in 2 months

Japanese stocks led losses early in Asia, as the Nikkei logged its biggest percentage loss in two months Friday at 0.8% and was off that much again early Monday.

Given recent success and ahead of economic growth data Wednesday, recent action is "just profit-taking," said Tareck Horchani, global head of sales trading at Saxo Capital Markets.

Monday's decline came even as the yen pulled back, with the U.S. dollar around Yen113.65 versus Yen113.47 when local stock trading finished Friday. Earnings, which had supported the market, provided a bit of bad news, with real-estate developer Mitsui Fudosan and fiber maker Toray Industries both off more than 3%.

Benchmarks in Australia , Taiwan and Korea were down about 0.3%. The ASX 200's decline was mainly attributable to banks ANZ (ANZ.AU) and Westpac (WBK) trading ex-dividend effective Monday, cutting into the index by about 17 points, said Michael McCarthy at CMC Markets.

Reversing early gains, New Zealand's benchmark was flat, though dairy companies pushed higher after sharp declines last week. A2 Milk (ATM.NZ) was up 4.5% and Synlait (SML.NZ) rose 1.8%.

Oil prices rose modestly in Asia, after a Friday pullback helped along by bearish U.S. rig-drilling data. U.S. and global benchmarks were up about 0.25%.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 12, 2017 21:58 ET (02:58 GMT)