Asian stocks and the euro fell on Monday on renewed concerns over Greece's debt problems ahead of a euro zone summit, while Indian's surprise interest rate hike last week weighed on commodity currencies.
The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan shed just over 1 per cent, giving up some of its recent gains, with weaker commodity and oil prices weighing on shares of resource companies such as BHP Billiton, which fell 1.5 per cent.
Japanese markets were closed for a public holiday.
South Korea's stock index fell nearly 1 percent, with losses led by refiners and banking issues including S-Oil and Shinhan Financial Group
India's stock market opened nearly 1 per cent lower after the central bank's surprise 25-basis point rate hike on Friday, which came after local markets had closed.
It was not clear how that would impact earlier market expectations for a 50-basis point rise at the central bank's policy meeting in April as it battles intensifying inflation.
Lee Sun-yub, a market analyst at Shinhan Investment Corporation, said caution would pervade the market until a decision was made on support for debt-laden Greece.
"US stocks saw technical corrections after their substantial gaining streak, and this is also weighing on Seoul shares," Lee added.
European leaders sent out conflicting signals at the weekend over aid to Greece, with Germany's Angela Markel urging Athens to solve its debt problems alone and Italy's Silvio Berlusconi strongly backing EU support.
The euro struggled as EU leaders seemed at odds over how or whether to offer assistance to Athens, setting the scene for a tense summit on March 25-26 and fuelling doubts over whether euro zone states will agree to any support package.
Greece has said that it might have to turn to the International Monetary Fund for help.
The euro was languishing at $US1.3520 down from $US1.3535 late in New York on Friday. The US dollar rose 0.2 per cent against a basket of major currencies, extending gains of 1.4 per cent late last week as the euro succumbed to fresh worries about Greece.
Commodity linked currencies like the Australian and New Zealand dollars were still smarting from India's sudden rate rise, which stoked investors' aversion to riskier assets in general.
A growing number of Asian central banks are tightening policy, or are expected to in coming months, as inflationary pressures build along with strong economic recoveries, in marked contrast to weakness in major Western economies and in Japan.
"It's another reminder that Asian problems with inflation are completely opposite to the G10 problems with deflation. There might be a bit of a pull back in some of the risk appetite but longer term it will reinforce the Asia strong growth story against the problems of the developed world," said Robert Ryan, currency strategist at BNP Paribas in Singapore.
US oil futures fell 56 cents to $US80.12 a barrel having slumped almost 2 per cent on Friday under the weight of a firmer US dollar.
Spot gold hovered near $US1107 after a 2 per cent loss on Friday.
Reuters
