Intellasia News Services -- Asian shares mixed on thin trade, HK and China up

Asian shares mixed on thin trade, HK and China up
Source: 19/Nov/2008 Intellasia | Bloomberg | Reuters | Dow Jones
19 Nov, 2008 - 2:39:34 PM
Asian share markets were mixed Wednesday Nov 19 in low trading volume despite a rise in US stocks, with tech stocks pressured by worries about the outlook for consumer spending around the globe. The market mood generally was cautious in Asia, and trade was volatile.

A man checks an electronic stocks board in Chengdu, southwest China on November 17. The country in September became the largest foreign holder of US treasuries ahead of Japan, the US Treasury Department has reported. (AFP/File/Liu Jin)

Japan's Nikkei 225 ended with a 0.7% decline 2.5% after falling 2.3% Tuesday, with Korea's Kospi Composite finishing down 1.9% after a 3.9% drop Tuesday.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.7%, following a 3.6% fall Tuesday, with the lifting of a ban there on short-selling of most non-financial stocks.

But there was some bounceback in Chinese stocks with Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index adding 1.6% after a 4.5% drop Tuesday, taking its lead from the Shanghai Composite Index, which had jumped 5.6% in a late-day rise.

Sumitomo Mitsui, Japan's third-largest bank, fell 7.9 percent on a plan to raise 400 billion yen ($4.1 billion) to replenish capital as Japan's recession drives up bankruptcies and bad loans.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.4 percent to 79.62 at 3:42 p.m. in Tokyo, extending a two-day, 3.8 percent drop. Financial stocks were the biggest contributor to the measure's retreat. MSCI's Asian gauge has plunged 50 percent in 2008 as global financial institutions lost almost US$1 trillion since the U.S. subprime-mortgage market collapsed last year.

Shares on the index are valued at 9.7 times trailing earnings, compared with 19.5 times on Nov. 11, when the measure hit a peak of 172.32, Bloomberg data shows.

In currency markets, the U.S. dollar was at Y96.65 from Y97.15 earlier, while the euro was down at Y122.02, from Y122.73.

Asian currencies were on the decline: The U.S. dollar was up at KRW1,451 against the Korean won while the Philippine central bank was suspected to be selling dollars to support the peso.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority though had to intervene several times to inject Hong Kong dollar liquidity, in a bid to support the U.S. dollar.

The cost of protection against default on Asian debt continued to widen, with the Markit iTraxx Asia ex-Japan investment-grade credit default swaps index quoted at 390 to 430 basis points, from 390 basis points this time Tuesday.

Spot gold was at $737.75 a troy ounce, up 45 cents from New York levels; LME metals were lower with three-month copper down $59 at $3,691 a metric ton and aluminum down $10 at $1,908.

Front-month Nymex crude was up 13 cents at $54.52 a barrel on Globex with investors awaiting the release of U.S. weekly energy inventory data later Wednesday.