Asia Stocks Come Off Highs On Greece Worries

Asian stocks retreated from session highs Wednesday as the euro tumbled and U.S. equity futures retreated after Eurogroup finance ministers failed to agree on conditions to release a tranche of financial aid to Greece.

“Markets had been trading cautiously with the potential for an unfavorable outcome from the meeting keeping some investors at bay,” said Stan Shamu, a market strategist at IG Markets, adding that regional stocks had “lost their grip” following the news.

Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average , up more than 1% earlier in the day, pared most of those gains to trade just 0.3% higher in afternoon action.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200  extended losses and was off 0.3%, while Taiwan’s Taiex dropped 0.7%.

South Korea’s Kospi  reversed direction to trade 0.5% lower.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 0.2% during the lunch break. The Shanghai Composite Index , which had briefly dropped below the psychologically important 2,000-point level, was down 0.4% at 2,001.76 at the midday break.

The euro  , which was trading above the $1.28 handle before the announcement, suffered a sharp fall to change hands at $1.2751.

U.S. equity futures also retreated, with Dow Jones Industrial Average futures down 55 points, or 0.4%, at 12,704 by early afternoon in Hong Kong.

Sentiment was dampened after Eurogroup finance ministers, who had been locked in a meeting in Brussels to decide on conditions to release the next tranche of financial aid for Greece, failed to reach an agreement.

“The Eurogroup interrupted its meeting to allow for further technical work on some elements of this package,” Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker said in a statement.

The Eurogroup now plans to reconvene on Monday.

Most Asian stocks had risen modestly earlier in the day on optimism that the euro-zone leaders would reach an agreement, while Japanese shares had resumed a rally on further yen weakness after Tuesday’s lower finish.

But the euro’s tumble against the dollar — and the yen — helped erase some of those gains for the nation’s exporters.

Toyota Motor Corp.   slipped from its intraday high but remained up 1.6%, though Sony Corp. trimmed its advance to just 0.3%, and Tokyo Electron Ltd.   pared its gain to 0.6%.

Japanese trade data released 10 minutes ahead of the stock-market open helped exacerbate the yen’s fall. The Finance Ministry reported a 6.5% year-on-year drop in Japanese exports, fueled by another tumble in shipments to China, amid tensions between the two nations.

In Seoul, KB Financial Group Inc.   fell 2.4%, and Hyundai Heavy Industries Co.  dropped 1.7%. In Taipei, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.   lost 1.5%, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.   fell 1.1%.

And in Sydney, Commonwealth Bank of Australia    slipped 0.2%, and National Australia Bank Ltd.   dropped 0.3%, as buyers backed away.

Losses in Sydney also came amid weakness in the resource sector, with energy shares losing ground after an almost 3% drop in benchmark U.S. crude-oil futures overnight.

Woodside Petroleum Ltd.   lost 1.2% and Santos Ltd.   retreated 2.9%.

Property and resource stocks dropped on mainland Chinese bourses, with Poly Real Estate Group Co.  sliding 0.8% and Jiangxi Copper Co.   shedding 0.9%.

Hong Kong stocks ended the morning trading session higher, meanwhile.

Shares of China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd.  climbed 1.2%, and foods company Want Want China Holdings Ltd.  rose 1.3%.

Shares of HSBC Holdings PLC   climbed 0.3%, although also off the day’s highs, after The Wall Street Journal reported that the lender was in talks with China’s sovereign-wealth fun to sell its stake in Ping An Insurance Group Co.

Ping An  , which had dropped in the last two trading sessions amid concerns about the possible sale, advanced 0.3%.

Marketwatch