Cautious session sees Asia sliding in patches

Markets unable to extend gains as recent upside seen mostly overdone

Asian stocks witnessed a cautious session today, with some of the markets giving up their recent gains as profit selling emerged on negative cues from the US markets and ideas that the recent run up might be a little overdone for the global equities. US stocks slid lower yesterday, giving up most of their smart gains on Friday after the economy shed jobs at the least pace in six months. The banking stocks were under pressure and the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended lower by 155.88 points, or 1.82%, to 8,418.77.

Financials mimicked a similar pattern in Asia as well. Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 1.4% though the economic data came on the positive side. The composite index of leading economic indicators compiled using data such as the number of new job offers and consumer sentiment was up 2.8% to 76.6 in March from 74.5 recorded in February which gives a slight relief to the Japanese economy. The figure registers a rise for the first time in seven months.

China's exports slumped for the sixth straight month amid warnings that weak overseas demand was hindering a recovery, even as government spending helped boost factory investment. The 22.6 percent drop in exports in April from a year earlier, to $91.9 billion, was bigger than March's 17 percent drop and suggested that China's trade sector has seen inadequate relief from the prolonged drought in demand brought on by the global downturn. China's Shanghai Composite failed to get bogged down by this piece of information though and ended up 1.50% on the day.

In South Korea, South Korea's central bank held interest rates steady for a third consecutive month at a record low of 2.00 percent, as expected, preferring to wait and see how previous rate cuts are affecting the economy amid recent signs of stabilization. The Bank of Korea kept rates on hold in both in March and April after slashing the base rate by a total of 3.25 percentage points from October to February as the global financial crisis hammered export demand. Korea's Kospi Composite 0.7% lower.

In other markets, Taiwan's main index was down 2.5%, Indonesian Jakarta Composite slipped 0.20% while Malaysia's KLSE composite dropped 0.24% while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was off 1.5% and New Zealand's NZX-50 down 0.4%. In Singapore, the Straits Times Index was down 0.6% and Philippine shares were down 0.5%. Indonesian shares slipped 0.4%.

Yesterday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in comments made after a speech defending the bank sector stress tests, said the U.S. dollar would be strong, and was likely to stay the chief reserve currency.

In commodities, crude oil rallied as the US dollar slipped further. Front-month NYMEX crude oil rallied after its overnight fall and hit $59.68- its highest level in nearly seven months.