Asian stocks, dollar, oil pressured

HONG KONG, Nov 13 (Reuters) Tokyo stocks fell to a 1-{month low on Monday on worries about the health of the world's second-biggest economy, despite lower oil prices, while a weaker dollar weighed on major Asian exporters.

Gold was within striking distance of a 2-month high around 636 dollar an ounce hit last week, benefiting from the soft dollar, which was hurt by concerns central banks might gradually shift their foreign exchange reserves away from the currency.

Already fretting about data on Friday that showed an unexpected fall in core Japanese machinery orders in September, investors drove Japan's key 10-year bond yield to a six-week low ahead of third-quarter gross domestic product data due on Tuesday.

''The assumption is that won't be good either,'' said Akitsugu Bandou, a senior strategist at Okasan Securities.

Concerns Japan's economic growth is faltering weighed on the Tokyo stock market.

By the end of the morning session, Tokyo's key Nikkei average was down 1 per cent. The index fell as low as 15,942.19 -- a level last seen on Sept 28 -- as investors sold blue chips such as Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc, Japan's third-biggest bank.

''Right now, it looks as if the companies that are making money are making it overseas. Companies that rely on the domestic economy are not looking as strong,'' said Hideyuki Suzuki, investment information manager at SBI Securities.

Investors also gave energy shares a wide berth following a slide in oil prices on Friday. Japan's INPEX Holdings fell almost 2 per cent and Australia's Woodside Petroleum slipped 0.85 per cent.

Exporters including Japan's Canon Inc. and South Korea's Hyundai Motor both fell on the weaker dollar.

But Samsung Electronics climbed 1.11 per cent after the world's top memory chip maker said computer memory chip demand for the first quarter of 2007 was ''very strong''.

The MSCI index of Asian stocks outside Japan slipped 0.27 per cent by 0225 GMT, recoiling from a six-month high reached last week.

US stocks were supported on Friday by sharply lower oil prices and strong profits from AIG. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.58 per cent while the blue-chip Dow scraped out a gain of just 0.04 per cent.

OIL, DOLLAR DOWN US crude slipped 4 cents to 59.55 dollar a barrel, extending Friday's 2.6 percent slide after the International Energy Agency, a consuming countries' watchdog, reported a sharp rise in stockpiles for top consumers and forecast a decline in the world's need for OPEC crude.

Meanwhile, the dollar dipped to a one-week low versus the yen, remaining under pressure after China's central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan reiterated on Friday that Beijing planned to diversify its estimated 1 trillion dollar in reserves.

The dollar plumbed a low of about 117.11 yen before edging up to 117.25 yen, still off 117.60 yen in late US trade on Friday, while the euro bought 1.2864 dollar, near a 2-{month high of 1.2900 dollar struck on Friday.

Japan's key 10-year bond yield extended its decline, shedding 2 ticks to a six-week low of 1.66 percent as the machinery data last week reinforced expectations the Bank of Japan will only raise interest rates gradually.

Among other key Asian stock markets, South Korea's KOSPI, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index, Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Taiwan's TAIEX all fell between 0.2 to 0.8 per cent.

Singapore's Straits Times index was up just 0.11 per cent.

REUTERS SSC BD0958