Asia markets cheered by European growth data Aug 14

Asian markets rose yesterday Friday August 14 as data out of Europe showing the German and French economies had moved out of recession boosted hopes for a global recovery.
Dealers took heart from the news that Germany and France both posted surprise economic growth of 0.3 per cent for April-June, emerging from the worst recession in decades.
However, Shanghai dived nearly 3 per cent as investors continued to fear banks were preparing to cut down on credit.

TOKYO: Up 0.76 per cent. The Nikkei-225 rose 80.14 points to 10,597.33. The market is at its highest since October 3.

SYDNEY: Up 0.57 per cent. The S&P/ASX 200 gained 25.1 points to close at 4,461.0.
Dealers said sentiment was boosted by good results this week including a 10.3 per cent jump in profits from telecoms giant Telstra.

SHANGHAI: Down 2.98 per cent. The Shanghai Composite Index was down 93.59 points at 3,046.97.
The market is at its lowest since July 1 amid concerns the government will tighten monetary policy in the second half of the year.

HONG KONG: Shares rose 0.15 per cent yesterday as dealers followed other regional gains on the back of strong economic news out of Europe.
The blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 32.03 points, or 0.15 per cent, to 20,893.33.

SINGAPORE: Shares closed 0.66 per cent higher yesterday on gains in selected heavyweight stocks amid growing confidence about the economy, dealers said.
The blue-chip Straits Times Index advanced 17.33 points to 2,631.51.

SEOUL: Up 1.71 per cent. The Kospi ended up 26.77 points at 1,591.41. The index is at its highest since July 31 last year.

TAIPEI: Up 0.49 per cent. The weighted index rose 34.55 points to 7,069.51.
“Reconstruction efforts (in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot) are a must and investors see a tangible benefit” to construction and cement stocks, said Andrew Teng of Taiwan International Securities.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian shares ended mixed yesterday prompted by profit-taking in heavyweights, dealers said.
The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) closed 2.38 points higher or 0.20 per cent to end at 1,188.57. It had opened 2.91 points higher at 1,189.1.

BANGKOK: Down 0.22 per cent. The composite index dropped 1.43 points to close at 654.25, while the blue-chip SET-50 index lost 2.20 points to 473.31.
“The market was rangebound before profit-taking set in ahead of the weekend. Investors are worried about political developments this Monday,” said Somchai Anektaweepon, an analyst at Finansia Syrus Securities.

JAKARTA: Down 0.40 per cent. The composite index lost 9.62 points to 2,386.86.
“The market ran out of steam despite healthy inflows,” a trader told Dow Jones Newswires.

MANILA: Down 0.21 per cent. The composite index fell 6.05 points to 2,850.01.
“There aren’t any positive developments except that we are tracking the US market,” said Lawrence de Leon of Accord Capital Equities Inc.

MUMBAI: Down 0.69 per cent. The 30-share Sensex fell 106.86 points to 15,411.63.

VIETNAM: The VN Index kept increasing by 3.41 points, equal to 0.68 percent and ended at 506.99 points with a total matching order trade of 55.22 million shares for 2.184 trillion dong in value, a slight decline of 20 percent in volume and 17 percent in value in comparison with the previous session.
The HNX Index dipped slightly 0.77 point or 0.49 percent to end at 157.18 marks with a total market trade of about 21.773 million shares worth 718.608 billion dong, down 26 percent in volume and 29 percent in value against the previous session.

EUROPE: European shares fell yesterday, ending four weeks of gains, pressured by weak US consumer confidence data, which raised questions about the pace of recovery in the world’s largest economy.

Financials were among the top losers on the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index, which closed 0.8 per cent lower at 940.94 points after trading as high as 954.60 earlier in the day. It lost 1 per cent during the week.

London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index closed down 0.87 per cent, the Paris CAC 40 fell 0.83 per cent and the Frankfurt Dax lost 1.70 per cent.

AMERICA: Stocks fell sharply Friday, taking the major indexes down about 1 percent, after investors were disappointed by media reports that the Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment fell significantly short of expectations for the first part of August.

That’s a sign consumers may well keep cutting back their spending as they worry about losing their jobs. Consumer spending is crucial for the economy to emerge from recession as it accounts for two-thirds of all U.S. economic activity.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 76.79, or 0.8 percent, to 9,321.40 after falling as much as 165 points after the consumer sentiment survey was released.

The S&P 500 index fell 8.64, or 0.9 percent, to 1,004.09, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 23.83, or 1.2 percent, to 1,985.52.

The drop erased the market’s advance of the last two days, and gave the big indexes their first losing week after four weeks of gains. The Dow was down 0.5 percent for the week, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.6 percent and the Nasdaq was off 0.7 percent.

About five stocks fell for every two that rose Friday on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to a light 1.09 billion shares. Light volume can exaggerate the market’s movements.

In other trading, the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 11.29, or 2 percent, to 563.90.

Benchmark Currency Rates
	USD	EUR	JPY	GBP	CHF	CAD	AUD	HKD
HKD	7.7508	11.0085	0.0816	12.8222	7.231	7.0575	6.4555	 
AUD	1.2007	1.7053	0.0126	1.9862	1.1201	1.0932	 	0.1549
CAD	1.0982	1.5598	0.0116	1.8168	1.0246	 	0.9147	0.1417
CHF	1.0719	1.5224	0.0113	1.7732	 	0.976	0.8928	0.1383
GBP	0.6045	0.8586	0.0064	 	0.5639	0.5504	0.5035	0.078
JPY	94.94	134.843 	157.059 88.5725	86.4466	79.0736	12.249
EUR	0.7041	 	0.0074	1.1648	0.6569	0.6411	0.5864	0.0908
USD	 	1.4203	0.0105	1.6543	0.9329	0.9105	0.8329	0.129
							Bloomberg

 

Category: Stocks