July 10 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks fell for a second weekly drop as declines among shipping companies and Japanese property developers offset gains by consumer and mining shares.

STX Pan Ocean Ltd., South Korea’s biggest bulk carrier, lost 3.7 percent after shipping rates slumped for a seventh day. Mitsubishi Estate Co. fell 1.2 percent in Tokyo as office vacancies gained. Sapporo Holdings Ltd., Japan’s fourth-largest beermaker, jumped 4.8 percent as the country’s beer shipments rose. Rio Tinto Group, the world’s No. 3 mining company, added 1.6 percent after copper and oil prices climbed in New York.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 0.3 percent to 100.34 as of 7:55 p.m. in Tokyo, having swung between gains and losses at least 14 times today. The gauge had climbed as much as 49 percent from a five-year low on March 9 on optimism stimulus measures worldwide will revive economic growth. The measure fell 2.4 percent this week, adding to last week’s 0.8 percent drop.

“There is not a lot of conviction in this correction,” said Shane Oliver, Sydney-based head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors, which manages $95 billion. “As long as economic news remain benign, we could see buyers coming back in.”

India’s Sensitive Index sank 1.8 percent on speculation poor rainfall levels will hurt the country’s crop production. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average closed little changed at 9,287.28, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 0.5 percent. South Korea’s Kospi Index declined 0.2 percent even as the central bank raised its forecasts for gross domestic product.

First Trading Day

China’s Shenzhen Composite Index gained 0.5 percent as Guilin Sanjin Pharmaceutical Co. and Zhejiang Wanma Cable Co. both surged more than 80 percent on their trading debuts, the first companies to go public in the country since September. Tokyo Electron Ltd., the world’s No. 2 maker of semiconductor equipment, added 0.7 percent after saying orders surged.

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 0.7 percent. The gauge rose 0.4 percent in New York yesterday as an analyst upgrade of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. spurred a rally in financial shares and a rebound in natural-gas prices lifted energy producers.

Shipping stocks declined after the Baltic Dry Index, which measures the cost of shipping commodities, dropped 2.9 percent in London yesterday, taking a seven-day decline to 20 percent. The Nikkei newspaper also reported that container rates between Asia and North America are being cut.

STX Pan Ocean dropped 3.7 percent to 10,350 won in Seoul. Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd., the country’s third-biggest shipping line by sales, lost 3.9 percent to 348 yen. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd., operator of the world’s largest merchant fleet, declined 2.9 percent to 542 yen.

Office Vacancies

Mitsubishi Estate, which has properties concentrated in Tokyo’s business district, declined 1.2 percent to 1,424 yen. Sumitomo Realty & Development Co., Japan’s third largest property developer, lost 1.9 percent to 1,565 yen.

The vacancy rate for offices in the central part of Tokyo rose for a 17th consecutive month in June, according to a report from real estate brokerage Miki Shoji Co. The vacancy rate rose to 7.25 percent from 6.96 percent in May, while rents fell.

Sapporo climbed 4.8 percent to 505 yen. Kirin Holdings Co., Japan’s biggest beverage maker, gained 1.1 percent to 1,291 yen.

Shipments of regular, low-malt and alternative beers by Japan’s five biggest brewers rose 6.1 percent in June to 46.46 million cases, the Brewers Association of Japan and Brewers Council of Happoshu Taxation said in a report.

Rio Tinto gained 1.6 percent to A$48.36. BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, rose 1.1 percent to A$32.65.

Economic Recovery?

Copper for September delivery jumped 3.6 percent in New York yesterday after data showed claims for unemployment benefits in the U.S. fell last week to the lowest since January, spurring optimism for an economic rebound. A gauge of six metals advanced 2.5 percent in London yesterday.

Speculation the global economy is recovering has driven the MSCI Asia Pacific Index’s climb since March, lifting the gauge to an eight-month high on June 12. It has fallen 4.5 percent since then amid concern the recovery will be delayed. The measure’s companies are valued at an average 42 times reported profit, down from a six-year high of 43 times on May 27.

“The fundamental problem, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt said in 1933, is fear,” Robert Shiller, a Yale University professor, told Bloomberg Radio yesterday. The Great Depression was deepened by a “sense of lost confidence or animal spirits that was a self-fulfilling prophecy. The worry is that we will have the same kind of issue arising again,” he said.

Baltic Dry Index

In Shenzhen, Sanjin surged 82 percent to 36.01 yuan. The company, China’s largest maker of herbal lozenges, sold 46 million shares at 19.80 yuan in its initial public offering. Wanma, which supplies cable to the nation’s dominant electricity distributor, jumped 125 percent to 25.93 yuan. The company sold 50 million shares at 11.50 yuan in its IPO.

The jump in the companies’ shares triggered trading halts. The gains underscore demand for new equity in a nation where households wield $3.6 trillion in bank savings and cast doubt on the effectiveness of the government’s attempts to prevent excessive first-day price swings.

Tokyo Electron added 0.7 percent to 4,270 yen. The company said orders for machines that make semiconductors and flat-panel displays rose 82 percent in the first quarter, helped by bookings from chipmakers.

To contact the reporter for this story: Jonathan Burgos in Singapore at jburgos4@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 10, 2009 06:58 EDT