BEIJING, March 14 -- Asian stocks dipped yesterday, ending a week-long rally.

    Sony Corp and Honda Motor Co led Japanese exporters lower after the yen strengthened against the greenback, reducing the value of United States sales, Bloomberg News reported

    "The yen may remain strong against the dollar and we have to be careful about investment in US-dependent exporters," said Takeshi Yamaguchi, who looks after 674 million U.S. dollars at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Co in Tokyo. "Exporters' earnings growth will be curbed in the coming business year."

    Nikko Cordial Corp gained after retaining its stock market listing, raising speculation Citigroup Inc will increase its 10.8 billion U.S. dollars bid for the brokerage. Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co paced declines among South Korean technology stocks on concern earnings estimates may be lowered.

    The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia-Pacific Index lost 0.5 percent to 143.62 in Tokyo yesterday. It had gained 4.4 percent in the past week. Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped 0.7 percent to 17,178.80.

    Markets also fell in Australia, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, India and Sri Lanka.

    Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd gained after local investors bought 57.7 billion NT dollars(1.7 billion U.S. dollars) of stock from its largest shareholder.

    The rally in MSCI's Asian index in the past week came after a four-day, seven percent slide.

    Honda lost 1.2 percent to 4,260 yen (36.50 U.S. dollars). It made more than half of its sales in North America last year.

    Sony dropped 2.1 percent to 6,110 yen. Toyota Motor Corp fell 1.1 percent to 7,790 yen.

    The yen recently traded at 117.35 against the dollar, after falling to as low as 118.50 at 4:30pm in Tokyo on Monday. A stronger Japanese currency means the nation's exporters get less for their dollar-denominated sales when converted to yen, while their products become less competitive.

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)