Asia-Pac stocks are broadly lower on.........>

STOCKS: Asia-Pac stocks are broadly lower on Friday. In Japan the Nikkei 225 is

down 67 points at 22,455, the drop comes after the Thanksgiving market holiday

in Japan on Thursday. During the market closure yen strengthened significantly

which weighed on Japanese stocks from the open, USD/JPY is up 16 pips on the

session today at 111.37, but down from 112.20 at Japanese equity close on

Wednesday after a dovish set of FOMC minutes.

- The index gapped lower at the open, but has since closed around half of the

gap. 8/11 sectors are in the red on the Nikkei 225, Industrials lead the way

lower. Mitsubishi Materials are one of the biggest decliners after the company

admitted they faked safety data on some products.

- In China the Shanghai Comp is down around 20 points at 3,332, maintaining the

downside bias seen since Wednesday. In 3 days the index has so far fallen 110

points. The final hour of trade on Thursday saw an almost 60 point drop that was

blamed on tightening liquidity after government restrictions were imposed on

online lenders, bond market volatility is also adduced for the decline as yields

continue to rise.