Investors shrug off N Korea nuclear test May 25

Asian stock markets were mostly higher yesterday Monday May 25 as investors shrugged off an underground nuclear test by North Korea early in the day.

“The market more than recovered its loss from the nuke test as investors learned from past experiences that the geopolitical factor is of negligible impact,” Kwak Joong-Bo of Hana Daetoo Securities told Dow Jones Newswires.

TOKYO: Up 1.31 percent. The market ended higher for the first time in three sessions. The benchmark Nikkei-225 index rose 121.19 points, or 1.31 percent, to 9,347.00.

SYDNEY: Down 0.63 percent. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 fell 23.70 points to 3,737.9, while the broader All Ordinaries lost 20.1 points at 3,735.3.
“The big news this morning has been the decision by ASIC to remove the short selling ban on financials,” said IG Markets analyst Chris Weston.

HONG KONG: Share prices closed 0.35 percent higher yesterday, reversing earlier losses, dealers said.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index ended 59.3 points up at 17,121.82 after recovering from an intra-day low of 16,789.00.
Property developers led the gains on investor optimism of a sustained recovery in the private residential market, driven by attractive mortgage rates and stronger liquidity.

SHANGHAI: Up 0.48 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 12.41 points to 2,610.01.
Brokerages rose on hopes of higher revenue after regulators said they may resume initial public offerings next month, dealers said.

SINGAPORE: Shares closed 0.99 percent higher yesterday on hopes Singapore’s recession-hit economy was on the mend, dealers said.
The blue-chip Straits Times Index rose 22.19 points to 2,267.46.
“Market sentiment is good. People are still buying and expecting prices to head higher as they believe the worst is behind us,” said a dealer at a foreign brokerage. .

TAIPEI: Flat. The weighted index edged down 2.83 points or 0.04 percent to 6,734.46.
“Many investors seemed reluctant to keep holdings ahead of the upcoming long Dragon Boat Festival holiday,” Concord Securities analyst Allen Lin said.

SEOUL: Down 0.20 percent. The Kospi ended down 2.85 points at 1,400.90.
The market shrugged off news that North had carried out a nuclear test, dealers said.

KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices on Bursa Malaysia rebounded in unison with rebounds on regional stock markets yesterday. Its overall advancing counters out-paced declining counters by 518 to 155.
The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) opened marginally higher at 1,045.36 before rebounding to its intra-day high of 1,050.45 yesterday. It eased back to close at 1,035.56 points, giving a day-on-day loss of 7.07 points, or 0.68 percent.

BANGKOK: Down 0.63 percent. The composite index fell 3.51 points to close at 550.51 while the blue-chip SET-50 index was down 3.50 points to 390.71.
Investors were worried about official data showing the country’s economy had entered a recession, dealers said.

JAKARTA: Up 0.49 percent. The composite index rose 9.26 points to close at 1,890.97, a record high for the year.
“Healthy foreign buying in commodity-related stocks kept the main index in positive territory despite selling by local funds,” a trader said.

MANILA: Up 0.76 percent. The composite index gained 17.73 points to finish at 2,334.62 while the all-share index gained 0.56 percent to 1,517.61.

MUMBAI: Up 0.19 percent. The 30-share Sensex rose 26.07 points to 13,913.22.
“The markets see-sawed from positive to negative with no clear trend emerging,” said a dealer with brokerage Jamnadas Morarjee.

EUROPE: European stocks searched for direction Monday, closing little changed amid ongoing concerns about the sustainability of recent market gains. Asian shares rose, shrugging off reports of a nuclear test by North Korea.

Germany’s DAX index of blue chips closed down 0.3 percent at 4918.45, while the French CAC-40 index rose 0.2 percent to 3236.16. The London and New York stock exchanges were closed for national holidays, a bank holiday in Britain and Memorial Day in the United States.

Shares in Europe recovered in the afternoon after falling after the open on news that that closely watched Ifo institute’s survey of German business confidence rose less than expected in May. Sluggish demand weighed on construction and manufacturing in Europe’s largest economy as the index increased to 84.2 points in May from 83.7 points in April.

AMERICA: Wall Street slid Friday as early gains built on better earnings reports from retailers faded amid anxiety about the outlook for the American economy, the world’s largest. The Dow fell 14.81, or 0.2 percent, to 8,277.32. The S&P 500 index slipped 1.33, or 0.2 percent, to 887.00, and the Nasdaq composite index lost 0.2 percent to 1,692.01.

OIL prices slipped, with benchmark crude for July delivery down 43 cents to $61.24 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

FX: The dollar traded flat at 94.79 yen, barely up from 94.76 late Friday. The euro was unchanged at $1.3994 after briefly rising above $1.40.

Benchmark Currency Rates
	USD	EUR	JPY	GBP	CHF	CAD	AUD	HKD
HKD	7.7512	10.8649	0.0816	12.3368	7.1579	6.8922	6.0526
AUD	1.2806	1.7951	0.0135	2.0383	1.1826	1.1387	 	0.1652
CAD	1.1246	1.5764	0.0118	1.79	1.0386	 	0.8782	0.1451
CHF	1.0829	1.5179	0.0114	1.7235	 	0.9629	0.8456	0.1397
GBP	0.6283	0.8807	0.0066	 	0.5802	0.5587	0.4906	0.0811
JPY	94.935	133.0704	151.098	87.669	84.4137	74.1309	12.2478
EUR	0.7134	 	0.0075	1.1355	0.6588	0.6344	0.5571	0.092
USD	 	1.4017	0.0105	1.5916	0.9235	0.8892	0.7809	0.129
                                                              Bloomberg

 

Category: Stocks