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Most Asian Stocks Decline, Led by Commonwealth; Toyota Gains

By Kyung Bok Cho

Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Most Asian stocks fell as coordinated interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and five other central banks failed to ease concerns of more bank failures.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia slid 7.9 percent after it sold A$2 billion ($1.34 billion) of stock at a discount to raise funds for its purchase of HBOS Plc's Australian units. Toyota Motor Corp. and Canon Inc. rose at least 2.4 percent after the yen weakened against the dollar for the first day in a week, stemming concern a stronger currency will cut the value of Japanese companies' overseas earnings.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 0.2 percent to 91.20 as of 9:41 a.m. in Tokyo. The measure has lost 42 percent this year. It fell yesterday by the most since April 2, 1990.

Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 0.2 percent to 9,160.27. Yesterday it tumbled 9.4 percent, the most since global markets crashed in October 1987. Stocks declined in Australia and South Korea.