Asia: Marts mostly higher

Asian markets mostly rose yesterday Tuesday July 03 and the euro firmed on hopes that central banks in the US and Europe would take action to boost their sluggish economies after a stream of negative data.

Regional bourses shrugged off a lacklustre performance on Wall Street, with investors banking on the Federal Reserve taking stimulus measures after the release of weak US manufacturing data and the ECB cutting rates on Thursday.

Tokyo closed up 0.70 per cent, or 63.11 points, at 9,066.59, and Seoul ended 0.87 per cent, or 16.17 points, higher at 1,867.82.

Sydney finished down 0.14 per cent, or 5.80 points, at 4,127.2, although analysts said a central bank decision to keep interest rates on hold at 3.50 per cent after two recent cuts had little effect on the market.

HONG KONG: Stocks rose, with the Hang Seng Index recording its biggest two-day gain this year, on speculation China will cut reserve requirements for banks and as a gauge of the services sector accelerated for the first time in three months.
The Hang Seng Index rose 1.5 per cent to 19,735.53 at the close, with 43 of the 49 stocks advancing after a market holiday yesterday. It was the gauge’s biggest two-day advance since December. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of mainland companies listed in Hong Kong added 1.4 per cent to 9,711.57.

SINGAPORE: Shares closed up 1.19 per cent, or 34.74 points, to 2,945.33.
United Overseas Bank gained 1.97 per cent to S$19.16 and Singapore Airlines added 0.48 per cent to S$10.48.
Singapore stocks hovered around their highest in almost two months, as investors cheered moves by European leaders to shore up the region’s troubled banks.
Investors bought large caps and commodities such as Singapore’s Golden Agri Resources Ltd, which was up 5.1 per cent.

KUALA LUMPUR: SHARE prices on Bursa Malaysia closed mostly higher yesterday in line with gains in regional markets driven by hopes that policymakers will act to boost growth in view of weak manufacturing data released by major economies, dealers said.
The benchmark FBM KLCI, which stayed above the 1,600-point level, gained 6.89 points to 1,607.74.
Weaknesses in economic data, dealers said, pointed to more stimulus measures from central banks and interest rate cut.
The Finance Index surge 91.771 points to 14,358.04, Plantation Index added 47.319 points to 8,543.51 and the Industrial Index rose 2.69 points to 2,850.04. The FBM Emas rose 44.71 points to 10,985.74 and FBM 70 Index gained 32.88 points to 12,025.05.
The FBM ACE Index shed 45.36 points to 4,335.34.

In other markets:

* Taipei rose 1.0 per cent, or 73.2 points, to 7,418.36.

Hon Hai Precision rose 1.69 per cent to NT$90.5 while Chunghwa Telecom was 0.85 per cent higher at NT$94.7.

* Wellington was up 0.13 per cent, or 4.47 points, to 3,444.63.

* Manila was up 1.23 per cent, or 65.46 points, at 5,365.70.

* Jakarta rose 1.46 per cent, or 58.35 points, to close at 4,049.89.

Telekomunikasi Indonesia gained 3.09 per cent to 8,350 rupiah and Timah rose 1.38 per cent to 1,470 rupiah.

* Bangkok rose 0.78 per cent, or 9.33 points, to 1,198.07.

* Mumbai rose 0.15 per cent, or 26.73 points, to 17,425.71.

VIETNAM: Vietnamese stocks continued to fall on massive selling concerning over Q2 earnings and economic growth outlook.
The benchmark VN Index lost 6.21 points or 1.48% to 413.09. Volume rose by  12% to 43.3 million shares worth of VND678.7 billion. Put through trading contributed 3.7 million shares worth of VND138.2 billion. We saw 1 million VIC shares changed hands at VND81,000 each .
The VN30 fell 5.71 points or 1.16%, to 486.95. Amongst its 30 members, 2 stock rallied, 24 lost and 4 unchanged.
On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX lost 0.88 point or 1.26% to 69.21. Trading volume rose 55.8% to 37.9 million shares worth VND340.73 billion.

EUROPE: European shares were higher at midday yesterday as investors bet on more policy action from politicians to boost flagging global growth as the relief-rally at the start of the second-half continued.
By 1047 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 was up 3.84 points, or 0.4 per cent at 1,039.16 points, adding to a 4.2 per cent jump since last Friday, when EU leaders revealed an agreement, which, among other measures, allowed the euro zone bailout fund to inject cash into struggling banks.
The crisis-fighting deal spurred hopes that ECB President Mario Draghi may do more than just cut rates on Thursday.
“The very fact that there was some kind of agreement at the summit might give Draghi some leeway to do something extra and I think that is what the markets are pricing in,” a strategist at GFT Global said.

AMERICA: Stocks climbed Tuesday in an abbreviated holiday trading session after an encouraging report about manufacturing. Energy stocks rose the most because of increased tension over oil-rich Iran.

Major stock indexes wavered in early trading, then moved decisively higher after the government reported that factory orders rose in May. Caterpillar, Alcoa, Boeing and other stocks that depend on manufacturing rose.

The report was welcome after a trade group reported on Monday that U.S. manufacturing shrank in June for the first time since July 2009, the first month after the Great Recession ended.

The price of oil climbed more than 4 percent after Iran threatened to block a critical Persian Gulf shipping route. On Sunday, Europe enacted stricter rules against buying oil from Iran, trying to force it to be more open about its nuclear program.

New York crude rose $3.91 per barrel to $87.66. The supply fears drove energy stocks up more than 2 percent, more than any other industry in the Standard & Poor’s 500. Chevron rose $1.51, or 1.4 percent, to $107.37.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished 72.43 points higher at 12,943.82. The S&P 500 index rose 8.51 to 1,374.02. The Nasdaq composite index rose 24.85 to 2,976.08.

Ford and General Motors both jumped after they and other car companies reported higher sales for June. Overall car sales still came in slightly below what analysts polled by FactSet were expecting.

Factory orders increased 0.7 percent in May from April, the Commerce Department said. Core capital goods, which include machinery and computers, rose 2.1 percent. That was better than the 1.6 percent estimated last week.

Trading volume was light. The market closed three hours early, at 1 p.m., and many traders had already taken off for the Fourth of July holiday.

Benchmark Currency Rates (Bloomberg)

	USD	EUR	JPY	GBP	CHF	CAD	AUD	HKD
USD	–	1.2589	0.0125	1.5673	1.0481	0.9873	1.0290	0.1290
EUR	0.7943	–	0.0100	1.2449	0.8326	0.7843	0.8176	0.1024
JPY	79.8000	100.4600	–	125.0720	83.6060	78.7920	82.1190	10.2910
GBP	0.6381	0.8033	0.0080	–	0.6687	0.6300	0.6567	0.0823
CHF	0.9541	1.2011	0.0120	1.4956	–	0.9421	0.9819	0.1231
CAD	1.0128	1.2751	0.0127	1.5874	1.0615	–	1.0423	0.1306
AUD	0.9717	1.2233	0.0122	1.5229	1.0185	0.9594	–	0.1253
HKD	7.7542	9.7618	0.0972	12.1528	8.1256	7.6563	7.9808	–

 

Category: FinanceAsia