Financial companies led Asia-Pacific stock markets lower on Thursday as worries about further subprime losses in the US emerged, traders reacted to a 1.8 per cent fall in the S&P 500 overnight in New York, and exporters worried about US reports of lower home sales and higher consumer debt rose.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index had sagged by 1.1 per cent to 149.91 by mid afternoon in Tokyo.