Asia: Mostly weaker

Asian shares were mostly lower yesterday Monday October 01 as Chinese manufacturing activity slipped, Japanese business confidence fell, and worries persisted over the eurozone debt crisis.

Tokyo stocks fell. The Nikkei 225 Index closed down 73.65 points, or 0.83 per cent, at 8,796.51, while the Topix index of all first-section issues slipped 0.69 per cent, or 5.07 points, to 732.35.

The latest US economic data (on business activity and consumer spending) were “not encouraging”, Hiroichi Nishi, general manager of equities at SMBC Nikko Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires.

The downbeat start to Tokyo trade also came shortly after a quarterly Bank of Japan survey showed confidence among large Japanese manufacturers worsened in the quarter ended September.

But traders largely ignored the survey results which were in line with market expectations, brokers said.

However, Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 crept up 0.04 per cent, or 1.6 points, to 4,388.6.

Hong Kong, Shanghai and Seoul were all closed for public holidays.

Lee Kok Joo, head of research at Phillip Securities in Singapore, told Dow Jones Newswires: “The macro picture is still in contraction mode. Investors are still very cautious of going into the market.”

SINGAPORE: SOUTHEAST Asian stock markets ended mostly lower yesterday, tracking weak global equities and after a lacklustre session amid market holidays in Asia, but foreign buying pushed Malaysian shares to their highest in almost two weeks.
Weak buying interest was seen in most markets as China, Hong Kong and South Korea were closed for holidays.
In Singapore, the benchmark Straits Times Index slipped 0.08 per cent, or 2.48 points, to 3,057.86.

KUALA LUMPUR: SHARE prices on Bursa Malaysia closed higher yesterday, extending their gains last week, dealers said.
They said the investors’ appetite for riskier assets grew, influenced by 2013 Budget announcements that focused on efforts to reduce fiscal deficit.
The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose by 6.65 points to close at 1,643.31, driven by gains in selected heavyweights.
Dealers said the government’s persistent efforts to reduce the fiscal deficit from 4.5 per cent this year to four per cent next year helped reaffirm the country’s debt rating.
The Finance Index surged 54.771 points to 14,593.82, Industrial Index jumped 15.14 points to 2,818.76 and the Plantation Index rose 0.54 point to 8,278.62. The FBM Emas Index advanced 43.33 points to 11,149.89 and the FBM Mid 70 Index gained 48.72 points to 11,975.72.
The FBM Ace, however, fell 8.32 points to 4,296.36. Gainers led losers by 342 to 318 while 322 counters were unchanged, 650 untraded and 20 others suspended.
Turnover fell to 807.468 million shares worth RM1.07 billion from 994.31 million shares worth RM1.8 billion last Friday.
Of the heavyweights, Maybank earned five sen to RM9.06, Sime Darby was unchanged at RM9.80 and CIMB Group was up six sen to RM7.56.
Meanwhile, FBM KLCI futures on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed higher in tandem with the steadier cash market.
October 2012 rose 11 points to 1,649, November 2012 added 10 points to 1,648, December 2012 earned 9.5 points to 1,646.5, and March 2013 gained 7.5 points to 1,641.
Turnover decreased to 5,971 lots from 10,205 lots last Friday, while open interest fell to 29,889 contracts from 37,818 contracts, previously.

In other markets:

* Taipei fell 0.51 per cent, or 39.44 points, to 7,675.72.

* Manila was down 0.70 per cent, or 37.50 points, to 5,308.52.

* Jakarta fell 0.62 per cent, or 26.27 points, to 4,236.29.

* Bangkok gained 0.07 per cent or 0.92 points to 1,299.71.

* Mumbai rose 0.33 per cent, or 61.17 points, to 18,823.91.

VIETNAM: Vietnamese shares opened October trading with a big loss as investors sold shares to cut losses after Moody’s downgrade.
The benchmark VN Index lost 6.02 points or 1.53% to 386.55. Volume fell 19.4% to 29.9 million shares worth of VND478.7 billion.
Put through trading contributed 2.8 million shares worth of VND77.45 billion.
Today’s market breadth was negative on the primary bourse where 46 stocks advanced, 175 declined, 56 closed unchanged.
The VN30 lost 4.93 points or 1.08%, to 451.55. Among its 30 members 1 gained, 24 lost the ground and 5 unchanged.
On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX closed down 1.2 points or 2.16% to 54.27, a new all time low.
Trading volume rose 18.8% to 22.9 million shares worth VND169 billion.
The market breadth turned negative where 60 rallied, 158 declined, 42 closed unmoved, the rest untraded.
The HNX30 lost 3.41 points or 3.3% to 99.9 Of its 30 member, 2 gained, 3 unchanged, 24 lost.

EUROPE: European shares rebounded from three-week lows yesterday in a technical rally, with price dips and the unsurprising results of a Spanish bank stress test luring investors into the market, but analysts said the bounce was unsustainable.
At 1134 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 1 per cent at 1,099.73 points, after falling 1.3 per cent on Friday. The eurozone’s blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index gained 1.1 per cent to 2,481.79 points
The German DAX was up 1.1 per cent, Britain’s FTSE 100 index was up 1.0 per cent, and the French CAC 40 rose 1.3 per cent.
Edmund Shing, head of European equities strategy at Barclays Capital, said he still remained fairly defensive and preferred companies that offered decent dividends.
Some other analysts also stayed cautious on the market.

AMERICA: Stocks are ending mostly higher on Wall Street following a surprisingly strong increase in U.S. manufacturing last month.

The expansion came after four months of declines.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 78 points to close at 13,515 Monday. The Dow had been up as much as 161 points but gave up most of that gain in the afternoon.

The rally faded after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank needs to keep interest rates low because the economy isn’t growing fast enough to reduce high unemployment.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose four points to 1,444. The Nasdaq composite fell three to 3,114.

Three stocks rose for every two that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Trading volume was lighter than average at 3.3 billion shares.

Benchmark Currency Rates

	USD	EUR	JPY	GBP	CHF	CAD	AUD	HKD
USD	–	1.2892	0.0128	1.6128	1.0656	1.0184	1.0363	0.1290
EUR	0.7757	–	0.0099	1.2511	0.8265	0.7900	0.8038	0.1000
JPY	78.0300	100.6000	–	125.8580	83.1490	79.4690	80.8550	10.0633
GBP	0.6200	0.7993	0.0079	–	0.6606	0.6314	0.6425	0.0800
CHF	0.9384	1.2099	0.0120	1.5137	–	0.9557	0.9725	0.1210
CAD	0.9819	1.2658	0.0126	1.5838	1.0464	–	1.0176	0.1266
AUD	0.9652	1.2441	0.0124	1.5564	1.0281	0.9826	–	0.1244
HKD	7.7543	9.9973	0.0994	12.5076	8.2624	7.8975	8.0362	–

 

Category: FinanceAsia