Exporters Boost Asia

Ivaylo
31 Aug, 2006
New York City

In Japan, stocks got a boost from broad gains in technology and blue-chip stocks like Toshiba and Canon. Hong Kong advanced as gains in U.S. markets and hopes for a pause in interest-rate hikes lifted investor sentiment. In South Korea, shares were led by brokerage stocks which advanced on rising trading volume. China, Taiwan and Australia also gained.

[R]7:30AM Asian stocks advanced on weaker yen and upbeat exporters.[/R]
Asian markets ended higher on Thursday. The Nikkei 225 Average closed the day 1.69% higher at 16140.76. Exporters led the advancers in Japan. Canon ended 2.3% higher and Toshiba gained 3.2%. Kyocera rose 3%, Sony closed 1.8% higher, Matsushita Electric Industrial jumped 2.2% and Pioneer climbed 2.5%. Auto stocks ended up because of the relatively weak yen and a Nihon Keizai Shimbun report that Toyota, Nissan and Honda will boost procurement of locally produced auto parts in China. Toyota ended 1.3% higher, Honda gained1.5% and Nissan advanced 2.4%.

Hong Kong''s Hang Seng Index rose 0.62% to close at 17392.27, with property stocks leading the advance. Sun Hung Kai Properties rose 1.6%, Cheung Kong Holdings gained 1.3%, and Henderson Land Development ended 0.8% higher. South Korea''s Kospi Index rose 0.85% to 1352.74, with Samsung Securities climbing 1.6% and Mirae Asset Securities rising 6.1%. In China, Shanghai Composite Index ended 0.2% higher at 1658.64. Shares closed higher for a fourth consecutive session, with strong performance by banks, following their solid first-half results as well as with optimism over China Merchants Bank''s Hong Kong initial public offering.

Taipei gained 0.37% to 6611.77, and Australia''s S&P/ASX 200 closed 0.95% higher at 5115.40. In Taiwan stocks closed moderately higher on demand from hedge funds and hopes of an improvement in companies profits for the remainder of the year, while in Australia, month-end buying exaggerated strength in the stock market, after slight gains in commodity prices Wednesday.

[R]6:30AM European stocks are trading lower Thursday on oil price rise.[/R]
European markets were lower by mid-morning on Thursday. The FTSE 100 in London shed 0.1% to 5,923.8, the Xetra Dax in Frankfurt edged down 0.1% to 5,863.62, and the CAC-40 in Paris sank 0.2% to trade at 5,170.74. On the corporate front, Thales, defence electronics group, gained 1.7% after Safran, aero engine maker, denied speculation it was interested in Zodiac, which Thales had also been linked with. Safran added 0.2%.

L’Oreal, cosmetics group, advanced 3.55 after it topped expectations with a 19.6% rise in first half operating profits, while KBC, banking and insurance group, plunged 5.2% despite a 48% jump in second quarter net earnings. Altadis, tobacco group, fell 1.4% after first half core earnings fell 1%, hit by tax hikes, an anti-tobacco law and a price war in its domestic market.

Oil prices advanced Thursday on concerns about possible supply disruptions as a U.N. deadline on Iran''s nuclear program arrived.
Light sweet crude for October delivery increased 37 cents to $70.40 a barrel on the NYME. Brent crude on London''s ICE futures exchange rose 42 cents to $70.60 a barrel.

Gold opened Thursday at a bid price of $619.40 a troy ounce, up from $617.60 late Wednesday. The euro was at $1.2852 at 10:10 a.m. in London, from $1.2833 late yesterday in New York. The British pound was also at $1.9067 versus the dollar from $1.9025. The U.S. dollar rose to 117.45 yen, the highest since July 19, before slipping back to 117.22 yen, up from 117.13 yen on Wednesday in New York.

[R]5:00AM Gold and silver futures advanced Wednesday, while copper fell.[/R]
Gold for December delivery advanced $7 at $626.10 a troy ounce on the NYME, while December silver gained 34.8 cents to $12.67 an ounce. October platinum added $10 to $1,237.50 an ounce and December palladium rose $2.40 to $345.30 an ounce. The top-traded December copper contract settled down 3.15 cents at $3.3525 per pound.

October crude oil gained 32 cents at $70.03 a barrel. September gasoline advanced 1.27 cents to $1.8019 a gallon and September heating oil rose 0.64 cent to $1.9496 a gallon. September natural gas was off 58.6 cents at $6.290 a million British thermal units. On the New York Board of Trade, September Arabica coffee futures ended up 0.05 cent at $1.0335 a pound. Futures on raw sugar in foreign ports for October finished down 0.36 cent at 11.52 cents a pound.