ASIAN stocks declined, dragging the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index down by the most in three weeks, as raw-material prices fell yesterday and Hong Kong enacted measures to curtail property speculation.

Mitsubishi Corp., a Japanese trading company that gets 39 percent of its sales from commodities, slumped 5.5 percent. Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. sank 3.4 percent in Hong Kong after the city tightened down-payment requirements for luxury homes.

Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd., Japan’s No. 3 shipping line, dived 6.4 percent after more than doubling its yearly loss forecast.

The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index dropped 1.5 percent to 117.99 as of 5:17 p.m. in Tokyo, set for the biggest slump since October 2.

The gauge has climbed 67 percent from a five-year low on March 9 amid signs government measures were helping the global economy out of its worst slump since World War II.

“We’re at a turning point” said Diane Lin, a Sydney-based fund manager at Pengana Capital Ltd., which oversees about $1.1 billion. “The stimulus has been helpful in pulling economies out of recession, but markets have been taking it for granted that this will continue.”

Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average declined 1.5 percent. Consumer lenders Aiful Corp. and Promise Co. lost more than 2 percent after an industry group said about 50 percent of customers may be rejected for additional loans.

India’s Sensex fell 1.3 percent, led by banks after the central bank ordered lenders to keep more cash in government bonds, signaling the start of a tighter monetary policy.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index declined 1.6 percent. James Hardie Industries NV, the No. 1 seller of home siding in the US, fell 4.2 percent as US senators discussed cutting a tax credit for homebuyers. The Kospi Index lost 0.5 percent in Seoul with LG Innotek Co. slumping 8.4 percent after Credit Suisse Group AG downgraded the stock.

Among shares that gained, Chuo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. surged 7.9 percent in Tokyo, while Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co. added 1.8 percent after the Nikkei newspaper said both banks will merge in “spring” 2011.

Baidu Inc., the operator of China’s biggest search engine, sank 13 percent in US after-hours trading after forecasting fourth-quarter revenue that missed analysts’ estimates.

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index were little changed. The US gauge declined 1.2 percent yesterday, led by financial companies after Richard Bove, a Rochdale Securities Llc. analyst, said the government will force Bank of America Corp. to raise more capital before repaying the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

US stocks will “drop painfully from current levels,” in the coming year amid disappointing economic data and profits as margins shrink, Jeremy Grantham, chief investment strategist at Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co., wrote in a quarterly report.

Mitsubishi, Japan’s biggest trading house, dropped 5.5 percent to 1,962 yen. Woodside Petroleum Ltd. retreated 2.5 percent to A$49.60 in Sydney. BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, fell 2.2 percent to A$38.85.

Crude oil for December delivery lost 2.3 percent to $78.68 a barrel in New York yesterday, the biggest drop since September 24. Copper futures fell 0.8 percent, declining from the highest level in almost 13 months.