BHP, the world's biggest mining company by market value and production, lost 5 percent to A$27.40. Fiscal first-half sales to China rose 36 percent to $4 billion from a year earlier, the company said. Rio Tinto Group, the second-biggest by market value and third by production, dropped 3.9 percent to A$76.49. It generated 16 percent of its total sales from China in 2006.

'Worry'

"Commodities stocks are the losers because whenever something like this happens, investors worry about the implications for global growth," said Tom Murphy, who manages about $1 billion in Asian assets at Deutsche Bank AG in Sydney.

Posco, the world's third-largest steelmaker, slumped 4.3 percent to 356,500 won. China was the company's largest market after South Korea in 2005.

Korea Zinc Co., the world's biggest smelter of the metal, fell 3.8 percent to 90,600 won. Nippon Mining Holdings Inc., Japan's biggest copper producer, dropped 6.8 percent to 972 yen.

Toyota, Japan's largest automaker, dropped 4.1 percent to 8,000 yen. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., the world's No. 1 maker of consumer electronics, lost 3.5 percent to 2,380 yen, while Sony Corp., the second largest, tumbled 6 percent to 6,130 yen.

The yen rose the most in more than 19 months against the dollar amid a sell-off in U.S. stocks and as investors shunned emerging-market assets, prompting an unwinding of trades betting on a decline in the Japanese currency.

The currency rose 2.3 percent to 117.93 against the dollar late in New York yesterday, the biggest gain since July 2005. It was little changed at 118.15 recently.

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