Asia Awaits Fed

Ivaylo
19 Sep, 2006
New York City

The Japanese market was responding to regional gains in the morning on Monday but fell back in line with the precarious mood in the afternoon. The Nikkei Average finished slightly higher, with Hitachi and Sony shares dropping as faulty products impacted negatively their outlooks. Hong Kong, Australia, Taiwan and South Korea also declined and only China bucked the downtrend.

[R]7:30AM Asian stocks witness lucklustre session.[/R]
Asian markets ended flat. The Nikkei 225 Average finished the day 0.05% higher at 15874.28. Stocks ended mixed, while the weaker yen benefited exporter stocks such as Toyota Motor and Matsushita Electric Industrial. Toyota rose 0.5% and Matsushita Electric Industrial added 0.8%. Toshiba Corp. fell 2.3% after saying it will recall 340,000 batteries in its laptop computers. Sony Corp fell 0.8%. In August, Sony shares were hit by a larger-scale recall of its batteries by Dell Inc and Apple Computer.

Hong Kong Hang Seng Index fell 0.23% to 17346.70. Shares closed lower on concerns a U.S.-led slowdown in the global economy would hurt corporate earnings. HSBC Holdings fell 0.4% and China Mobile dropped 0.6%. South Korea''s Kospi Index closed 0.03% lower at 1373.95. stocks closed flat as foreign buying limited losses brought on by institutional selling. Heavyweight technology shares fell after their recent rise, while transport stocks rose on easing oil prices. Samsung Electronics fell 0.2% while Hynix Semiconductor lost 0.5%.

Taipei lost 0.01% to 6881.87, and Australia S&P/ASX 200 decreased 0.32% to close at 5056.80. Stocks in Taiwan finished unchanged, as profit-taking in technology and financial firms after their gains Monday offset increases in mainland China-focused companies on yuan-appreciation hopes. In Australia, BHP Billiton fell 0.2%, and Westpac declined 1.4% in a continued negative reaction to its disappointing earnings update last week.

The Shanghai Composite Index bucked the trend and advanced 0.1% to end at 1735.24. Shares ended mixed, with foreign currency-denominated Class B shares declining on profit-taking after local media rejected speculation of an imminent merger between the Class B-share and yuan-denominated Class A-share markets.

[R]6:30AM European markets make dull start on Tuesday in spite of gains.[/R]
European markets were trading flat by mid-morning on Tuesday. The U.K. FTSE 100 index was firm at 5,892, the German DAX Xetra 30 index edged down 0.1% at 5,922 and the French CAC-40 index was flat at 5,147. Attention is expected to focus on the macro-economic data with the ZEW survey of German economic sentiment due for release later in the session. On the corporate front, the emphasis is still on the proposed merger deal from MAN, after Scania rejected the German conglomerate bid.

Advancers

Copper miner Kazakhmys led the advancers as ots shares rose 1.1% after its first-half net profit nearly tripled MAN traded 1.5% higher as advisers hope that resistance by the leading shareholders, Investor and Volkswagem, to the deal is mainly over price and that a sweetened offer could win them over as neither rejected the bid on principle. TeliaSonera rose 1.8%, continuing its strong performance from the previous session.

Bank of Ireland advanced 1.5% following its statement it is expecting to deliver an excellent performance in the current half-year. Newspaper publisher Independent News & Media gained 3.1% after it said its adjusted first-half profit rose 9%.

Decliners

Telecom Italia lost 1.3% after the Morgan Stanley cut its rating to underweight from equal-weight. Scania was 0.3% lower after rejecting the takeover bid from MAN.

Economic news

Diplomatic relations between Japan and Russia could be seriously hurt by the revocation of Russia for the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project on environmental issues, Japan government spokesman warned on Tuesday. Ferenc Gyurcsany has resisted calls to step down as Hungarian prime minister and vowed to restore public order after an anti-government demonstration turned into a riot.

[R]5:00AM Gold rises.However, marketmen remain cautious of end of fall.[/R]
December gold rose $9.80 to settle at $592.80 a troy ounce on Monday on the NYME. December silver ended at $11.29 an ounce, up 41.5 cents. October platinum advanced $3.20 higher at $1,166.90 an ounce. December palladium ended the session $3.25 lower at $311.55 an ounce. The most-active December copper contract gained 10.30 cents to settle at $3.4145 per pound.

October crude oil settled at $63.80 a barrel, up 47 cents on top of the 11-cent gain on Friday. October gasoline settled up 0.46 cent at $1.5796 a gallon and October heating oil settled up 2.34 cents at $1.7257 a gallon. October natural gas settled down 4.0 cents at $4.942 a million British thermal units. On the New York Board of Trade, Arabica coffee futures ended lower after industry and speculative buying curbed a fund-led drop to seven-week lows. October futures on raw sugar in foreign ports settled down 0.08 cent at 12.36 cents a pound.