Asian markets pullback as investors cash in gains

Asian markets fell yesterday Sep 14 as dealers moved in to take profits after two sessions of gains, while a stronger yen also weighed on exporters.

TOKYO: Down 2.32 per cent. The Nikkei-225 dropped 242.27 points to 10,202.06.

Investors dumped auto and electronics makers after the dollar slid to 90.19 yen, threatening to reduce the value of repatriated earnings.

“Retail investors seem to be getting more cautious about buying even as the Nikkei nears its recent low, because they fear that the yen may strengthen even more,” Mito Securities general manager Yutaka Yoshii told Dow Jones Newswires.

HONG KONG: Share prices closed 1.08 per cent lower yesterday as investors reserved money for upcoming share sales and regional markets declined on Wall Street losses, dealers said.

The Hang Seng Index finished down 229.22 points at 20,932.2, retreating from the highest closing level in more than a year on Friday.

The strength of China’s markets will probably limit further losses in the near term, analysts said.

SINGAPORE: Shares closed 1.54 per cent lower yesterday, dragged down by tumbling property stocks after the government announced new measures to curb real estate speculation.

The blue-chip Straits Times Index fell 41.29 points to 2,639.74.

Decliners outnumbered risers 452 to 118, with 675 issues unchanged.

Banks also tumbled

SYDNEY: Down 1.41 per cent. The S&P/ASX200 fell 65 points to 4,531.1.

Dealers said shares in financial companies came under pressure after a sell-off on Wall Street at the end of last week.

SHANGHAI: Up 1.24 per cent. The composite index was up 36.95 points to 3,026.74.

The rise came after regulators said they would review IPO applications from companies seeking to list on the country’s new Nasdaq-style board, dealers said.

SEOUL: Down 1.02 per cent. The Kospi ended down 16.79 points at 1,634.91.

“Large-cap tech shares came under selling pressure amid scepticism over whether their recent powerful rallies are really backed up by their earnings,” Lee Jae-Man, an analyst at Tong Yang Securities, said.

TAIPEI: Down 1.09 per cent. The weighted index fell 80.19 points to 7,256.95.

The market opened flat, but selling followed and accelerated throughout the session with electronics and financials in focus as investors took advantage of recent strong gains.

BANGKOK: Down 1.91 per cent. The composite index fell 13.49 points to close at 694.32, while the blue-chip SET-50 index was down 11.24 points to 496.96.

Kosin Sripaiboon, an analyst at UOB Kay Hian Securities, said Thai shares fell in line with other regional markets following Friday’s decline in US stocks.

JAKARTA: Down 1.38 per cent. The composite index lost 33.24 points to 2,382.70 on profit-taking in banks and commodity-related shares.

KUALA LAMPUR: Share prices on Bursa Malaysia paused for breath in tandem with the weak performances on the regional stock markets yesterday. Overall declining counters outpaced advancing counters by 511 to 149.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia Composite Index fell from its intra-day high of 1,212.70 to close at its intra-day low of 1,203.36 yesterday, giving a day-on-day loss of 4.92 points, or 0.41 per cent.

MANILA: Down 1.71 per cent. The composite index fell 49.10 points to close at 2,821.73. The all-share index shed 1.2 per cent, or 22.28 points, to close at 1,800.66.

“The market was up in recent days, so it’s time to take a breather,” Joey Roxas of Eagle Equities said.

MUMBAI: Down 0.31 per cent. The benchmark 30-share Sensex index fell 50.11 points to 16,214.19

VIETNAM:
VN Index yesterday easily surpassed the threshold of 550 points thanks to the sharp increase in prices of many blue-chips, in which HAG marked its ceiling rise on the second session.
VN Index jumped significantly by 8.6 points or 1.57 percent to close at 556.59 points with total market liquidity of about 64 million shares worth 2.855 trillion dong, up 3 percent in volume but down 6 percent in value against the previous session.
Similarly, HNX Index of the northern bourse increased by 2.65 points or 1.57 percent against the previous session last week to end at 171.83 points with a total market trade of about 41.133 shares for more than 1.398 trillion dong in value.

AMERICA:
Stocks bounced back from early losses to post moderate gains as traders funneled money into utility and financial companies.

Major market indexes ended at their highest levels in nearly a year.

Stocks slid at the open following a drop in overseas markets on worries that a trade war would erupt between the U.S. and China. But the market recovered from the early dip that sent the Dow Jones industrial average down 69 points as investors seized on the opportunity to inject new money into shares. The Dow ended with a gain of 21 points.

The Dow rose 21.39, or 0.2 percent, to 9,626.80. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 6.61, or 0.6 percent, to 1,049.34, an 11-month high. The Nasdaq composite index rose 10.88, or 0.5 percent, to 2,091.78.

Among stocks driving trading, AES rose 64 cents, or 4.5 percent, to $14.79 following the report of interest from China. General Electric Co. gained 68 cents, or 4.6 percent, to $15.35 — its first close above $15 since January. Goldman Sachs reiterated its “buy” rating on the stock, which often trades alongside banks because the conglomerate has a large financial arm.

Crude oil fell 43 cents to settle at $68.86 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Bond prices fell, pushing yields higher. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.43 percent from 3.35 percent late Friday.
The dollar traded mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 6.44, or 1.1 percent, to 600.03.

Two stocks rose for every one that fell on the NYSE, where consolidated volume came to 4.9 billion shares compared with 5 billion Friday.

Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2 percent, while Germany’s DAX index and France’s CAC-40 slipped 0.1 percent. Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 2.3 percent.

Benchmark Currency Rates
	USD	EUR	JPY	GBP	CHF	CAD	AUD	HKD
HKD	7.7501	11.3505	0.0852	12.8861	7.503	7.1634	6.6946	 
AUD	1.1577	1.6955	0.0127	1.9248	1.1208	1.07	 	0.1494
CAD	1.0819	1.5845	0.0119	1.7989	1.0474	 	0.9346	0.1396
CHF	1.0329	1.5128	0.0113	1.7175	 	0.9547	0.8923	0.1333
GBP	0.6014	0.8808	0.0066	 	0.5823	0.5559	0.5195	0.0776
JPY	91.016	133.298	 	151.332	88.1144	84.126	78.6205	11.7438
EUR	0.6828	 	0.0075	1.1353	0.661	0.6311	0.5898	0.0881
USD	 	1.4646	0.011	1.6627	0.9681	0.9243	0.8638	0.129
                                                              Bloomberg

 

Category: Stocks