Asia: Uptick in sentiment

Asian markets rallied yesterday Friday July 27 and the euro held on to strong gains from New York after the European Central Bank chief said it would do “whatever it takes” to save the under-pressure single currency.

The comments from bank president Mario Draghi sent shares in Europe and the United States surging, while the borrowing rate for Spain fell back below the seven per cent danger level. Tokyo stocks rose 1.46 per cent, tracking a rise on Wall Street. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index climbed 123.54 points to 8,566.64.

Draghi’s remarks eased concerns over Spain’s debt, said Fumiyuki Nakanishi, general manager of investment & research at SMBC Friend Securities.

“The worst-case scenario is avoided,” he said. Despite the uptick in sentiment, Kenichi Hirano, operating officer at Tachibana Securities, said the eurozone’s dire economic outlook was unlikely to see a reversal any time soon. “Still, the rising trend in share prices appears likely to remain intact,” he said. Chinese shares closed up 0.13 per cent, but overall gains were capped by economic concerns.

The Shanghai Composite Index edged up 2.77 points to 2,128.77. “Overall sentiment is still cautious as trading volume remains weak,” Zhang Yanbing, an analyst at Zheshang Securities, said. Seoul was 2.62 per cent, or 46.69 points, higher at 1,829.16, and Sydney finished 1.50 per cent, or 62.1 points, higher at 4,209.8.

HONG KONG: STOCKS climbed 2.02 per cent yesterday after the head of the European Central Bank said it would do what it could to save the euro. The benchmark Hang Seng Index added 382.17 points to end at 19,274.96.
However, yesterday’s gain might not be sustained next week. Waiting to see what action the ECB takes, to follow remark by its chief Mario Draghi, will be one key factor, and another will be earnings reports.
Hong Kong blue chips will be releasing their earnings reports next week, starting with banking giant HSBC on Monday.

SINGAPORE: SOUTHEAST Asian stock markets mostly rose yesterday with large caps and banking stocks leading Indonesian and Philippine shares to a one-week closing high.
In Singapore, the benchmark Straits Times Index closed down 0.20 per cent, or 6.08 points, at 2,998.49.
Among the active stocks, Asia Pacific Breweries was unchanged at S$50.00 while Fraser and Neave gained 0.24 pe rcent to S$8.40.

KUALA LUMPUR: SHARE prices on Bursa Malaysia paused to consolidate recent gains, in tandem with the weaknesses on regional stock markets. The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) closed lower over the week at 1,624.94 points yesterday.
The FBM KLCI hit its intra-week high of 1,643.33 on Monday day before consolidating to intra-week low of 1,620.76 yesterday, giving an intra-week trading range of 22.57 points.
The FBM KLCI’s 30 index-linked components paused to consolidate gains when losers overwhelmed gainers by 22 to 6. Shares on Bursa Malaysia consolidated on three of the last five trading days during the week. On a balance, the FBM KLCI registered a week-on-week gain of 18.06 points.
The ACE market counters bucked FBM KLCI’s falling trend when it posted a week-on-week gain of 45.15 points, or 1.05 per cent. The FBM Small Cap Index registered week-on-week loss of 1.41 per cent.
The FBM KLCI paused to stage a technical pullback for the week ended yesterday.
It closed lower at 1,624.94 points yesterday, giving a week-on-week gain of 18.06 points, or 1.10 per cent.
The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Small Cap Index lost 174.82 points, or 1.41 per cent, to close at 12,247.16 points while the FTSE Bursa Malaysia ACE Index gained 45.15 points, or 1.05 per cent, to 4,345.75 level yesterday.

In other markets:

Taipei rose 2.21 per cent, or 153.8 points, to 7,124.49.

Manila closed 1.30 per cent higher, adding 66.99 points to 5,219.55.

Jakarta closed up 1.98 per cent, or 79.44 points, at 4,084.212.

Bangkok rose 0.43 per cent, or 5.09 points, to 1,178.01.

Mumbai rose 1.20 per cent, or 199.37 points, to 16,839.19.

VIETNAM: Vietnamese shares resumed its losing track today after a single day break as investors escaped from risky assets.
The benchmark VN Index gave up 1.64 points or 0.4% to 413.16. Volume rose 24.6% to 38.3 million shares worth of VND620.2 billion. Put through trading contributed 4.1 million shares worth of VND138.22 billion.
The market breadth turned negative on the primary bourse where 78 stocks advanced, 177 declined, 54 closed unchanged.
The VN30 lost 1.17 points or 0.24%, to 499.61.  Amongst its 30 members, 6 gained, 16 lost and 8 unchanged.
On the Hanoi Stock Exchange, the HNX lost 0.74 point or 1.06% to 69.35. Trading volume rose 3% to 40.8 million shares worth VND369.8 billion.
HNX30 fell 1.93 points or 1.45% to 131.56.

EUROPE: European shares rose in choppy trade yesterday, as fresh signs that the European Central Bank might step in to battle the region’s debt crisis boosted weakened equity markets.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 0.6 per cent to 1,049.25 points, while the Euro STOXX 50 index rose by around 1 per cent at mi-day.
London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index gained 0.17 per cent to 5,582.60 points in morning trade. The Paris CAC 40 added 0.20 pe rcent to 3,213.56 points, while Frankfurt’s DAX 30 dropped 0.24 per cent to 6,568.01.
“We’ve got a bit of breathing space for the markets, but to my mind, the outlook is still rather gloomy and the bias is towards the downside,” said Mike Turner, European equity options broker at XBZ Ltd.

AMERICA: Dow Jones Industrials

High: 13,117.74

Low: 12,888.53

Close: 13,075.66

Change: +187.73

Other Indexes

Standard&Poors 500 Index: 1385.97 +25.95

NYSE Index: 7912.16 +157.65

Nasdaq Composite Index: 2958.09 +64.84

NYSE MKT Composite: 2385.42 +27.69

Russell 2000 Index: 796.00 +18.89

Wilshire 5000 TotalMkt: 14,457.19 +266.61

Volume

NYSE consolidated volume: 4,241,906,193

Total number of issues traded: 3,131

Issues higher in price: 2,543

Issues lower in price: 505

Issues unchanged: 83

Benchmark Currency Rates

	USD	EUR	JPY	GBP	CHF	CAD	AUD	HKD
USD	–	1.2323	0.0127	1.5747	1.0255	0.9967	1.0483	0.1289
EUR	0.8117	–	0.0103	1.2780	0.8325	0.8092	0.8509	0.1046
JPY	78.4600	96.6700	–	123.5080	80.3850	78.1870	82.2650	10.1130
GBP	0.6351	0.7826	0.0081	–	0.6514	0.6331	0.6659	0.0819
CHF	0.9746	1.2012	0.0124	1.5354	–	0.9720	1.0222	0.1257
CAD	1.0033	1.2359	0.0128	1.5797	1.0289	–	1.0518	0.1294
AUD	0.9539	1.1752	0.0122	1.5022	0.9784	0.9508	–	0.1230
HKD	7.7574	9.5578	0.0989	12.2150	7.9576	7.7311	8.1308	–

 

Category: FinanceAsia