Asian stocks fell, dragging the MSCI Asia Pacific Index from a one? year high, as Alibaba. com Ltd.'s chairman sold a stake, while CSK Holding Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. offered shares for sale. Alibaba. com, owner of China's biggest electronic? commerce Web site, sank 5.3 % in Hong Kong after Chairman Jack Ma sold stock for $35 mn. CSK Holdings Corp., which provides computer services, tumbled 8.6 % in Tokyo, while Metro Pacific, owner of the Philippines' longest toll road, slumped 10 %. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. retreated at least 1.6 % after JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded the companies.

The OPEC should maintain existing output quotas and improve compliance when the 12? member group meets today, the group's production? monitoring committee recommended. "We need more compliance" with existing production targets, Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmed al? Abdullah al? Sabah told reporters in Vienna. "I don't foresee any cut," he said, when asked at what price level the group might consider a further supply reduction. Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al? Naimi, who represents OPEC's biggest and most influential producer, said current oil prices are "good for everybody, consumers, producers,"

UBS AG, lowered its forecasts for the dollar against currencies such as the euro and the pound, citing improving risk appetite and gains in stocks. Furthermore the euro rose toward a nine? month high against the dollar before a government report forecast to show French industrial production increased for a third month in July, boosting demand for higher? yielding assets.

Hedge funds returned 1.1% in August, the sixth straight monthly gain, as managers investing in Europe and distressed debt outperformed, Eurekahedge Pte said.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the government had no exit strategy for incentives announced as part of the stimulus packages, even as there has been a 28 % fall in indirect tax collections till July."At the G? 20 meeting, we had already said that the world economy is not yet out of the woods and that stimulus packages will continue for some time to help the economy recover," said Mukherjee after a meeting with chief commissioners of Customs, central excise and service tax.