Recession fears hit Asian markets, US rallies
19-NOV-2008 Intellasia | AFP | Bloomberg | AP | Reuters
Nov 19, 2008 - 7:09:00 AM
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Asian stock markets tumbled Tuesday Nov 18 as fears of a painful global recession were reinforced after US banking giant Citigroup slashed 50,000 jobs and the financial crisis showed no sign of easing.
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| People wait to cross a street outside a Citibank branch in Hong Kong's financial Central District Tuesday November 18, 2008. Asian stocks fell by up to 5 percent on Tuesday as prospects of a deep global recession and one of the biggest job cut plans in history at Citigroup doused expectations for a financial sector recovery in 2009.
Reuters/Bobby Yip |
A day after Japan announced it was officially in recession its economics minister said he had "no confidence at all" that the world's second biggest economy would recover any time soon.
Dealers were also looking for good news after the G20 meeting of rich and emerging nations at the weekend failed to come up with any concrete plans to ease the global meltdown.
"Market eyes are on global recession fears," Kazuhiro Takahashi, general manager at Daiwa Securities SMBC, said. "The financial summit has left the impression that economic stimulus measures are unlikely to get into gear," he added.
The MSCI Index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside of Japan shed 4.9%, bringing year-to-date losses to near 60%, according to an MSCI index. Asia's losses have outpaced the all-country world index, which is down 47.5% in 2008.
Tokyo: Japanese stocks lost 2.28%. The benchmark Nikkei-225 index lost 194.17 points to 8,328.41. The Topix index of all first section issues fell 15.05 points, or 1.77%, to 835.44.
Sydney: Australian share prices closed down 3.6%. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 dropped 129.8 points to 3,523.2, its lowest level since August 25 2004, while the broader All Ordinaries lost 126.4 points to 3,513.1.
Shanghai: Chinese share prices plummeted 6.31%. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which covers A and B shares, fell 128.06 points to 1,902.43.
Taipei: Taiwan share prices closed down 3.03%. The weighted index fell 134.62 points at 4,305.18, its lowest since hitting 4,271.30 on May 22, 2003.
Seoul: South Korean shares closed 3.9% lower. The KOSPI index ended down 42.16 points at 1,036.16.
Bangkok: Thai share prices closed 3.28% lower. The Stock Exchange of Thailand composite index lost 14.24 points to close at 419.97 points.
Jakarta: Indonesian shares fell 3.8%. The Jakarta Composite Index slipped 47.07 points to 1,189.86.
Manila: Philippine share prices closed 3.42% lower. The composite index fell 66.40 points to 1,873.60 points.
Mumbai: Indian shares fell 3.81%. The benchmark 30-share Sensex fell 353.81 points to 8,937.2, at a near three-year low.
National benchmark indexes increased in nine of the 18 markets in western Europe. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 rose 1.9%, and France's CAC 40 gained 1.1%. Germany's DAX added 0.5%.
US stocks gained in the last hour of trading as a rally in energy and technology shares overpowered earlier declines spurred by a drop in homebuilder confidence to the lowest level on record. The S&P 500 added 1% to 859.12, the first advance in three days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 151.17 points, or 1.8%, to 8,424.75. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose less than 0.1% to 1,483.27. About six stocks retreated for every five that advanced on the New York Stock Exchange.
Oil prices were lower in Asian trade, with light, sweet crude for December delivery falling 40 cents to $54.55 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by late afternoon in Singapore. The contract Monday fell $2.09 to settle at $54.95, the lowest since January 2007. Prices have fallen about 62% since reaching a record $147.27 in mid-July.
In currencies, the dollar strengthened to 96.52 from 96.38 and was trading at 1.2608 against the euro.
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