<HEADLINE>Asia ADRs hurt by dollar weakness<COLUMN>Asian ADRs<INDUSTRY-LIST><INDUSTRY>General News<ISSUE-LIST><ISSUE>General<PERSONALFINANCE-LIST/>
<LASTUPDATED TIMESTAMP='38831.6895833333'>4/24/2006 4:33:00 PM<SYMBOLS> <BODY><SECTION TYPE='CONTENT'>
NEW YORK (AFX) -- U.S.-listed stocks of Asia-based companies traded lower Monday, tracking losses in their home market, where a weak U.S. dollar weighed on key export and industrial shares.
The Bank of New York's Asia ADR Index was last down 0.6% at 154.24, while the Bank of New York's Composite ADR Index fell 0.1% to 154.18.
Chinese ADRs were the biggest decliners with the Bank of New York China index down 2.3% at 263.64.
In Asia earlier, financial markets ended mostly lower. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 ended down 489.56 points, or 2.8%, to 16,914.40. It was the largest point loss for the Nikkei this year, and the first time the index has closed below 17,000 since March 29.
Elsewhere in the region, South Korea's Kospi index finished down 1.3% to 1,432.88, while the Shanghai Composite was down 0.5% to 1,409.786. Australia's All Ordinaries rose 0.4% on strength in mining shares.
The dollar slumped to a three-month low against the Japanese yen and seven-month low against the euro Monday, after the world's leading industrial nations urged China to allow greater flexibility in the value of its currency. Asian currencies, including the Korean won, the Thai baht, and the Taiwanese dollar, rallied.
But with their currencies strengthening, export companies came under heavy pressure.
From Japan, big auto manufacturers moved lower.
Toyota Motor was down 0.9% at $116.41. The automotive giant announced Monday that it had boosted its year-on-year domestic production in March by 6.8%, to 412,990 vehicles, marking the seventh consecutive month of growth.
Honda Motor lost as much as 1.2% to $34.
Mobile handset and electronics company NEC gave up 2.5% to $7.18, and Matsushita Electrical was off 1.4% to $24.05.
Among Korean ADRs, liquid-crystal display maker LG Philips was down as much as 3.3% at $21.63. Steelmaker Posco fell 0.5% to $69.05.
From China, shares of China Medical Technologies rallied as much as 16.6% to $27.39 after the Beijing-based medical device maker forecast revenue of RMB 360 million and RMB 400 million for the fiscal year ended March 31.
The company expects the resulting net income for the year to come in between RMB 175 million and RMB 190 million. It noted this outlook is in line with the view it gave in February when it announced its third-quarter results. The company plans to report its results for the fourth quarter and full year prior to the opening bell on June 16.
But other Chinese ADRs moved mostly lower. China Brilliance Automotive was down 3.6% at $18.04, while Aluminum Corp. China was down 6.6% at $96.45, and China Petroleum This story was supplied by MarketWatch. For further information see www.marketwatch.com.