By Kana Nishizawa April 13 (Bloomberg) — Asian stocks for the first time in three days, led by raw-material producers and Japanese automakers after commodity prices and the dollar declined. BHP Billiton Ltd. , Australia’s largest oil company, declined 0.7 percent. Alumina Ltd. sank 1.9 percent as venture partner Alcoa Inc. reported revenue that trailed analyst estimates. Honda Motor Co. dropped 0.8 percent as the dollar’s drop against the yen threatened to hurt the value of U.S. sales. Sanyo Electric Co. , a Japanese electronics maker, climbed 3.3 percent after Nikkei English News flagged higher operating profit for the company. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 0.3 percent to 127.81 as of 9:48 a.m. in Tokyo. The gauge has climbed 12 percent from its 2010 low on Feb. 8 as Greece debt concerns eased and improving U.S. economic data strengthened confidence in the global recovery. Stocks in the gauge trade at an average 1.7 times book value, near the highest level since September 2008. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average sank 0.9 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.4 percent. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index declined 0.2 percent. South Korea’s Kospi index declined 0.2 percent. Futures on the U.S. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 0.2 percent. The gauge rose 0.2 percent yesterday as takeovers and a $61 billion rescue plan for Greece bolstered equities. BHP lost 0.7 percent to A$44.14 after oil and copper futures in New York declined 0.7 percent yesterday. Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third-largest mining company, sank 0.7 percent to A$80.12. Chinese Banks Alumina slumped 2.9 percent to A$1.825. Alcoa’s first- quarter sales of $4.89 billion missed the $5.23 billion average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, even amid aluminum prices that were 57 percent higher on average in the first quarter than a year earlier. Japanese exporters fell after the dollar strengthened to 92.89 yen from 93.24 yesterday in New York. Honda, which got 44 percent of its third-quarter sales in North America, declined 0.8 percent to 3,260 yen. Chinese banks may be active in Shanghai and Hong Kong after China’s central bank said lenders extended 510.7 billion yuan ($74.8 billion) of new loans in March. That compared with 700 billion yuan in February and the median forecast of 709 billion yuan in a Bloomberg News survey of 21 economists. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. , the nation’s biggest listed lender, fell yesterday 1 percent to 4.92 yuan. China Construction Bank Corp., the second largest, closed 1.6 percent lower at 5.60 yuan. Powerchip Semiconductor Corp. may be active in Taipei today after the company’s board approved a plan to sell as many as 800 million new shares, the chipmaker said in an exchange filing. The company said it plans to reduce capital by 38 percent to make up for accumulated losses. To contact the reporter for this story: Kana Nishizawa in Tokyo at knishizawa5@bloomberg.net .
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Asian Stocks Fall as Commodity Prices, Dollar Decline; Nikkei Leads Drop
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