Sony Corp. (6758), which depends on Europe for a fifth of its sales, slid 2.7 percent in Tokyo. BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), Australia’s biggest oil producer, lost 1.1 percent after crude dropped from a five-week high. E Ink (8069) Holdings Inc., which makes screens for Amazon.com’s handheld reader, slumped 7 percent in Taiwan after its rating was cut by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. China Molybdenum Co., a mineral explorer, lost 4.9 percent after missing profit estimates.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 0.6 percent to 124.97 as of 11:11 a.m. in Tokyo after rising 0.7 percent yesterday. All 10 industry groups on the index slid after Moody’s cut ratings of Italy, Spain, Portugal and three other European countries. The move follows downgrades in the last two months by Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings.

“These sorts of things can have a negative knee-jerk impact,” saidShane Oliver, Sydney-based head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors Ltd., which has almost $100 billion under management. “The reality is we’ve been talking about this for so long that it should hardly be a surprise to anybody.”

Moody’s cited “uncertainty over the euro area’s prospects for institutional reform of its fiscal and economic framework” as a reason for the downgrades.

S&P 500 Futures

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped 0.3 percent. The index climbed 0.7 percent in New York yesterday amid speculation the approval of budget cuts by Greece’s parliament yesterday would be enough to secure another bailout. European finance chiefs are expected tomorrow to ratify a 130 billion-euro ($171 billion) aid package for the debt-stricken nation.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average slid 0.3 percent before a meeting of the Bank of Japan today. Policy makers are expected to announce no new measures, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.8 percent even after a report showed confidence among the nation’s business rose to an eight-month high in January. South Korea’s Kospi Index fell 0.4 percent.

China Policy

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (HSI) dropped 0.2 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks the bigger of China’s stock exchanges, declined 0.5 percent. Stocks slipped after a former deputy governor of China’s central bank said authorities probably won’t significantly ease credit conditions this year if the economy worsens.

Anhui Conch Cement Co., the mainland’s biggest supplier of the material, dropped 2.6 percent to HK$26.30 in Hong Kong. Angang Steel Co. slipped 2.6 percent to HK$6.1 percent. China Coal Energy Co. declined 1.4 percent to HK$9.98.

Sony slid 2.7 percent to 1,472 yen. Cosco Pacific Ltd. (1199), which operates container facilities at Greece’s Piraeus port, fell 1.8 percent to HK$12.12 in Hong Kong.

BHP fell 1.1 percent to A$36.27 as oil for March delivery slid as much as 45 cents to $100.46 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL), Australia’s second-biggest oil and gas producer, sank 1.3 percent to A$35.12.

E Ink Slides

E Ink slumped 7 percent to NT$39.95 after Goldman Sachs cut its rating on the stock, saying shipment growth of displays for electronic readers may slow. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut the company’s share-price estimate 40 percent to NT$36.

China Molybdenum fell 4.9 percent to HK$4.12 after reporting fiscal year profit was 1.12 billion yuan ($178 million), short of the 1.18 billion yuan estimated by analysts.

Of 428 companies on the Asia Pacific index that have reported earnings since Jan. 9, more than half have missed analysts’ estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 10.5 percent this year through yesterday, compared with a 7.5 percent increase by the S&P 500 and a 7.6 percent advance by the Stoxx Europe 600 Index. Stocks in the Asian benchmark are valued at 14.1 times estimated earnings on average, compared with 12.9 times for the S&P 500 and 10.9 times for the Stoxx 600.

To contact the reporters on this story: Yoshiaki Nohara in Tokyo at ynohara1@bloomberg.net; Jason Clenfield in Tokyo at jclenfield@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Gentle at ngentle2@bloomberg.net.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-14/asian-stocks-decline-as-moody-s-cut-debt-ratings-of-six-european-nations.html

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