Asian markets finished lower on Tuesday. Japanese Nikkei 225 settled down 0.9% to 17,512.98. Stocks fell after the Japanese government released the core machinery orders figure falling 4.5%. Fanuc, the largest industrial-robot maker in the world, declined 1%. Steelmaker JFE Holdings lost 1.5%. Mitsubishi Electric, which makes factory machinery and robots, dipped 3.8%.

Automaker bucked the trend and gained. Shares of Toyota Motor rose 0.7%, while Honda Motor was up 0.7% and Nissan Motor added 0.9%. Suzuki Motor climbed 2.8%.

Shanghai Composite index plunged 3.6% to 3,899.17. Sharp declines in large-capitalized stocks drove the benchmark share index lower. Investors took profits on several large-cap stocks. China Minsheng Banking dipped 6.3%, wiping out its gains in the past two sessions.

Elsewhere around the region, Hong Kong Hang Seng index, which gained in early trading, closed in negative territory, down 0.5% at 20,868.15. South Korean Kospi settled down 1% at 1,589.37. Australian S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.8% to finish at 6291.20. The Singapore Straits Times Index lost 0.7% to 3,475.08 and Weighted index in Taipei declined 0.7% to 7,975.03.


8:30AM Wal-Mart stores posted Q1 earnings in line with estimates.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT: chart), the world''s largest retailer, posted 8% increase in Q1 net income, coming in line with analyst estimates and 8.5% revenue growth, slightly missing expectations. The retailer reported quarterly earnings $2.83 billion, or 68 cents a share, up from $2.62 billion, or 63 cent a year ago, with revenue rising 8.5% to $86.41 billion from $79.68 billion. Analysts had expected the company to earn 68 cents a share on revenue of $86.94 billion.

Chief Executive Lee Scott said they were not pleased with their overall performance, but international operations had a strong quarter, especially Mexico operations and Asda in the U.K. The retailer''s consolidated profit margin thinned by 0.08% in the quarter. The company projected Q2 earnings from continuing operations to be 75 cents to 79 cents a share, compared with analyst expectations of 79 cents a share. U.S. comparable-store sales are seen higher by 1% to 2%.


8:00AM NY-7:00PM Mumbai Sensex edges lower with IT and oil & gas stocks leading decliners.

The Sensex on BSE finished 36.53 points, or 0.26%, lower at 13,929.33.

The market-breadth was slightly positive as there were 1,330 stocks which advanced, 1,271 stocks, which declined, and 78 stocks which remained unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, 15 advanced, while the rest declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 4,131 crore, almost unchanged from Rs 4,136.23 crore on Monday. On NSE, the turnover was Rs 9,135.04 crore, higher than Rs 8,472.51 crore on Monday.

Economic news

The rupee continued its advance and was quoted at 40.83 against the US dollar in late morning deals supported by weak dollar overseas and sustained dollar selling by exporters, despite capital outflows.

The finance ministry announced today that the government is not intending to raise rates on small savings scheme. Prevailing interest rates on small savings are within the range of 3.5% for the post office saving account and 8% under the post office monthly income account. Rates for Public Provident Fund and Senior Citizen savings scheme are 8% and 9% respectively.

The unavailability of spectrum has affected the telecom industry so sharply that the Department of Telecom is about to limit the number of operators in each service area to maintain a minimum quality of service. There are 23 telecom circles in the country.

Trading highlights

Indiabulls Real Estate was the most-active stock with a turnover of Rs 131.20 crore followed by SBI and Reliance Natural.

Advancers

BHEL led the gainers, surging 2.5% to Rs 2,519. BHEL intends to enhance its manufacturing capacity to 15,000 MW per annum with total investment of around Rs 3,200 crore during the Eleventh Plan, spread over the period 2007-2012.

Banking and financial stocks also rallied on fresh buying interest and on market talk that CRR, or cash reserve ratio, may be cut down by 50 basis points shortly. ICICI Bank rallied 2% to Rs 887. SBI advanced 1.7% to Rs 1,227, and HDFC Bank added 1.4% to Rs 1,010.