TOKYO (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks dropped from a record after falling commodity prices pulled down shares of BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group. “The copper price came off a touch overnight, enough to stop a fairly sizeable rally in BHP and Rio,” said Hans Kunnen, who helps manage the equivalent of $111 billion at Colonial First State Investment Management Australia Ltd. in Sydney. “The metals stocks are taking a breather.”

Honda Motor Co. led declines among Japanese automakers on speculation profits will be curbed by slower growth this year. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index retreated from an all-time high after an A$11.1 billion ($9.2 billion) buyout offer for Qantas Airways Ltd. failed.

China's shares surged, following a weeklong holiday, after record numbers of investors opened brokerage accounts to join a rally that's made the market the world's best performer in the past year.

Benchmarks fell elsewhere, except in New Zealand, the Philippines, and Pakistan. The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia-Pacific Index lost 0.2 percent to 149.16 at 7:19 p.m. in Tokyo. More than three stocks dropped for every two that rose. The measure Monday jumped 1.5 percent to a record.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 0.1 percent while the Topix index was little changed. Mitsubishi UFJ Group Inc. led Japanese banks higher as concern eased that earnings will disappoint investors.

Steelmakers gained after UBS AG advised investors to buy shares of Japan's Hitachi Metals Ltd. --------------------------- Copper, BHP

BHP, the world's biggest mining company, slipped 1.2 percent to A$31.18. Rio Tinto, the third-biggest, fell 1.8 percent to A$89.70, sliding from a record high.

Copper dropped 1.1 percent in New York. The metal, used in pipes and wires, has surged 34 percent in the past two months, and last week reached an 11-month high.

Following a four-day 8.1 percent rally, BHP's 14-day relative strength index, a ratio of the changes in the share price in the past two weeks, Monday reached 66, close to the 70 point level that indicates the shares are poised to decline. Rio's RSI Monday reached 73 after a four-day, 12 percent surge. ----------------------- Vehicle sales

Honda, Japan's No. 2 automaker by sales, lost 0.5 percent to 4,090 yen. Toyota Motor Corp., the biggest, fell 0.4 percent to 7,240 yen.

Motor vehicle sales in Japan declined 10 percent from a year earlier in April, after sliding 13 percent in March, according to the Japan Auto Dealers Association in Tokyo. Meanwhile, U.S. sales among Japan's top three carmakers dropped in April, the first decline in two years for Toyota. “It's becoming clear that the U.S. auto market is slowing down,” Shingo Hayashi, an analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research, wrote in a note dated Monday, lowering the recommendation of Honda shares to “neutral” from “outperform.” “There's a high chance total auto sales in the U.S. this year will be lower than the previous year.”

Qantas, Australia's largest airline, lost 3 percent to A$5.22 after resuming trading for the first time since May 5. Macquarie Bank Ltd. and partners including TPG Inc. Tuesday said their A$11.1 billion buyout offer lapsed after they failed to get 50 percent of Qantas stock on May 4. Qantas said it would treat any revised buyout offer from Macquarie and its partners as a new bid. ------------------- China surges

China's CSI 300 Index, which tracks yuan-denominated A shares listed on the nation's two exchanges, rose 3.6 percent to a record.

China Vanke Co., the country's biggest publicly traded real-estate developer, rose by its 10 percent daily limit to 19.89 yuan. Citic Securities Co., the largest listed brokerage, jumped 1.3 percent to 69.83 yuan, a record.

China's central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan on May 6 expressed concern that local shares were rising too fast. The CSI 300 has more than tripled in the past year, making it the best performer among 90 stock benchmarks tracked by Bloomberg.

About 1.48 million new trading accounts were opened at China's brokerages in the week ended April 27, according to the latest figures published on the website of the China Securities Depository and Clearing Corp. That was the biggest weekly increase since the agency started publishing the numbers on June 20, 2005. “Investors have had to wait for the end of the holiday to buy more stocks,” said Lu Yizhen, who oversees $640 million at Citic-Prudential Fund Management Co. in Shanghai. “Cash is flooding in.” -------------------- Japanese banks

Mitsubishi UFJ, Japan's largest lender, gained 2.3 percent to 1.32 million yen. Mitsubishi UFJ Nicos, a consumer credit card company, said it expects net income of 15.5 billion yen this business year, compared with a 52.2 billion yen loss in the year ended March 31. The stock jumped 14 percent to 375 yen.

“Bank shares rose as investors shifted their money into domestic demand-related stocks after they became less worried about earnings,” said Hiroshi Chano, who helps look after $7.3 billion at Yasuda Asset Management Co. in Tokyo.

Hitachi Metals, the steel and electrical products unit of Hitachi Ltd., surged 7.3 percent to 1,437 yen, the highest since Feb. 27.

Atsushi Yamaguchi, a Tokyo-based analyst at UBS, raised his rating on Hitachi Metals to “buy” from “neutral.” That's the top level in UBS's three-tiered rating system and indicates that the stock's return during the next 12 months may exceed that of the overall market by more than 6 percent.

Nippon Steel Corp., Asia's biggest steelmaker, rose 0.6 percent to 857 yen. Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd., Japan's third-largest steelmaker, climbed 0.2 percent to 634 yen.

Signs of strong profit growth elsewhere in the region also boosted share prices. Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., the world's biggest shipbuilder, surged 9.6 percent to a record 286,000 won.

Net income for the three months to March 31 jumped to 371 billion won ($402 million) from 22.9 billion won a year earlier, the Ulsan, South Korea-based company said Monday. That median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of four analysts was for profit of 283 billion won.