Asia: Stocks fall after Greece 'no' vote, but China bucks trend on new measures to halt losses

Asian stocks finished in the red on Monday, although Chinese markets rose after the country froze new share offers over the weekend.

The Nikkei 225 ended down 2.08% as Greece’s vote to reject the terms of its international bailout cast doubt over the country’s future in the Eurozone.

The governor of the Bank of Japan, Haruhiko Kuroda, said that despite limited direct economic and financial relations between Japan and Greece, officials will ensure the country will be monitoring the developments carefully.

In economic news, the Japanese coincident index dropped to 109.2 in May from 111 points one month earlier, while the leading economic index fell from 106.4 to 106.2.

Toshiba lost 2.69% due to an ongoing third-party investigation into its past accounting practices. Nissan also fell after deciding to close parts warehouses in Australia and recalling 12,000 vehicles in India to fix the potential problems with the engine switch and airbags.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng slid 3.14%, making it the biggest faller in the region, while Australia's ASX lost 1.14%.

On a brighter note, the Shanghai Composite index rose 2.42%, having surged almost 8% during the first few minutes of trading, underpinned by the government's decision to freeze new share offers and establish a market-stabilisation fund in an attempt to halt the sharp decline in the country's stock market.

The Wall Street Journal said on Sunday that initial public offerings had been suspended, news which came just hours after a number of China's leading brokerages posted a statement on the website of the Securities Association of China saying that they would collectively buy at least $19.3bn-worth of shares.

As a result, Bank of China jumped 9.87% and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rose 9.23%.

Following the news, TradeNext's Rocky Muddar said "we may see some short bids in Chinese equities".

In the commodities world, the price of Brent crude fell more than 1% to $59.56 a barrel in Asian trade.