Asian Shares Fall As Gloom Hits Techs, Miners

Asian shares fell Wednesday, led by losses in technology and materials stocks after brokerage downgrades for Intel and a warning from global miner Rio Tinto about the uncertain near-term outlook.

Global equities and the euro had fallen on Tuesday, knocked by gloomy forecasts from the International Monetary Fund, which said the world economic slowdown was worsening, and pessimism about the U.S. corporate earnings outlook.

The safe-haven dollar rose on Wednesday as the euro zone's festering debt crisis put the single currency under renewed pressure. Spanish bond yields climbed Tuesday as Madrid kept markets guessing over whether it will request an international bailout.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.4 percent, with the materials and tech sub-indexes both shedding more than 0.5 percent. fell 1.3 percent.

U.S. stocks fell around 1 percent on Tuesday. Shares of Intel, the world's largest semiconductor maker, lost 2.7 percent after negative reports from at least two brokerages.

Copper and gold prices were steady on Wednesday but oil fell, with Brent crude losing 50 cents to $114 a barrel and U.S. crude falling around 0.6 percent to below $92.

The euro fell 0.1 percent to around $1.2865, while the dollar rose by a similar percentage against a basket of major currencies.