Asia shares fall

Asian stocks mostly fell on Thursday as fresh data signalling a further loss of momentum in China's economy weighed on sentiment, while the yen slid to multi-year lows against the dollar and euro. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS dropped 0.3 per cent, briefly touching a three-week low. Hong Kong's Hang Seng .HSI was down 0.1 per cent and the Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC lost 0.3 per cent. Australian shares .AXJO shed 0.4 per cent to give up this year's gains. Tokyo's Nikkei .N225, on the other hand, edged up 0.1 per cent. The dollar hovered near a new seven-year peak of 118.275 yen JPY= reached early in the session. Spot gold XAU= was at $1,179.33 an ounce, off the week's high of $1,204.70 set on Tuesday. US crude oil futures extended their losses as the bullish dollar and an unexpected rise in US stockpiles countered hopes of a possible OPEC output cut. US crude CLc1 was down 9 cents at $74.49 a barrel, according to Reuters.