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* Asia stocks fall on worries over Greece's debt woes
* Euro near 3-week low vs dollar ahead of EU summit
* Surprise India rate hike curbs risk appetite
* Asian sovereign credit default swaps widen
By Kevin Yao
SINGAPORE, March 22 (Reuters) - Asian stocks and the euro
slid on Monday on renewed investor worries over Greece's debt
crisis ahead of a European Union summit, while India's surprise
interest rate hike last week weighed on commodity currencies.
The euro hovered near a three-week low against the dollar
after EU leaders sent out conflicting signals at the weekend
over aid to Athens, setting the scene for a tense summit on
March 25-26 and fuelling doubts over whether European countries
will agree to any support package. []
European shares are set to track Asia down, with financial
spreadbetters expecting Britain's FTSE 100 <> to open
10-15 points lower, Germany's DAX <> to open around 20
points lower, and France's CAC-40 <> to start up to 5
points lower.
The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan
<.MIAPJ0000PUS> shed 1 percent, giving up some of its recent
gains, with weaker commodity and oil prices weighing on shares
of resource companies such as BHP Billiton <BHP.AX>.
Japanese markets were closed for a public holiday.
South Korea's stock index <> fell 0.8 percent, with
losses led by refiners and banks including S-Oil <010950.KS>
and Shinhan Financial Group <055550.KS>.
Lee Sun-yub, a market analyst at Shinhan Investment
Corporation, investors would stay cautious until a decision was
made on support for Greece.
"U.S. stocks saw technical corrections after their
substantial gaining streak, and this is also weighing on Seoul
shares," Lee added.
India's stock market <> opened about 1 percent lower
but later trimmed losses, after the central bank's surprise
25-basis point rate hike on Friday, which came after local
markets had closed.
It was not clear how that would impact market earlier
expectations for a 50-basis point rise at the central bank's
policy meeting in April as it battles intensifying inflation.
[]
EURO SUFFERS
The euro, which lost 1.9 percent against the dollar last
week, was languishing at $1.3510 <EUR=D4>. The U.S. dollar rose
0.2 percent against a basket of major currencies <.DXY>,
extending gains of 1.4 percent late last week as the euro
succumbed to fresh worries about Greece.
Commodity linked currencies like the Australian <AUD=> and
New Zealand dollars <NZD=> were still smarting from India's
sudden rate rise, which stoked investors' aversion to riskier
assets in general.
A growing number of Asian central banks are tightening
policy, or are expected to in coming months, as inflationary
pressures build along with strong economic recoveries, in
marked contrast to weakness in big Western economies and in
Japan.
"It's another reminder that Asian problems with inflation
are completely opposite to the G10 problems with deflation.
There might be a bit of a pull back in some of the risk
appetite but longer term it will reinforce the Asia strong
growth story against the problems of the developed world," said
Robert Ryan, currency strategist at BNP Paribas in Singapore.
Meanwhile, Asian sovereign credit default swaps widened as
jitters over Greece's woes lifted the cost of insuring
government debt and made investors averse to buying riskier
assets.
U.S. oil futures fell 47 cents to $80.21 a barrel <CLc1>,
having slumped almost 2 percent on Friday under the weight of a
firmer dollar, while spot gold <XAU=> hovered near $1,106.9
after a 2 percent loss on Friday.
(Additional reporting by Jungyoun Park in SEOUL and Charlotte
Coope in TOKYO; Editing by Jan Dahinten)
