Asia stocks fall ahead of Greek debt deal deadline

BANGKOK (AP) ? Asian stock markets fell Wednesday as jittery investors awaited a deadline for Greece to get sufficient support from its private creditors for a debt reduction deal or face default.

Benchmark oil rose above $105 per barrel while the dollar fell against the yen and the euro.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.8 percent to 9,563.73. Hong Kong's Hang Seng slid 0.8 percent to 20,644.43 and South Korea's Kospi lost 0.7 percent to 1,987.40.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 1.2 percent to 4,152.80. Benchmarks in Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, India and the Philippines fell. Mainland China was mixed.

The losses in Asia come a day after U.S. stocks had their first big stumble of 2012 on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average dropping more than 203 points.

The biggest concern in markets is a deadline Thursday for Greece's private bondholders to accept a deal to swap their Greek government bonds for replacements with a lower face value and interest rate.

The swap is vital for Greece to cut its debt and get a bailout of euro130 billion ($172 billion) from other countries and the International Monetary Fund. Without the bailout, Greece could default on its debt later this month and rattle markets around the world.

"Rumours that a slack participation rate by private investors in the Greek bond swap might force Athens to extend the deadline beyond Thursday are likely to keep investors at bay. The last thing markets want to see is uncertainty," Stan Shamu, market analyst at IG Markets in Melbourne, said in an email.

A report showing that the combined economies of euro countries shrank at the end of 2011 and talk of war from Israel over Iran's nuclear program also weighed on investors' nerves.

Among individual stocks, Hong Kong-listed China Life Insurance, the country's biggest life insurer, plunged 5.2 percent after it issued a profit warning relating to its 2011 results.

China's lower economic growth target of 7.5 percent weighed on resource and mining stocks because the country is such a huge importer of raw materials.

Australia's Newcrest Mining tumbled 3 percent and Fortescue Metals Group lost 2.7 percent. Rio Tinto fell 0.9 percent after announcing it would close an aluminum smelter in England this month.

In Tokyo, Hitachi rose 1 percent after Kyodo News agency reported the company's sale of its U.S. arm that makes hard disk drives to California-based Western Digital Corp. will be completed on Thursday.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.6 percent to close at 12,759.15. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 1.5 percent to 1,343.36. The Nasdaq composite fell 1.4 percent to 2,910.32.

Benchmark oil for April delivery was up 45 cents to $105.15 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell by $2.02 Tuesday to $104.70 per barrel in New York.

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3137 from $1.3110 late Tuesday in New York. The dollar fell to 80.74 yen from 80.78 yen.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asia-stocks-fall-ahead-greek-debt-deal-deadline-023207326.html

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