Energy Stocks Hurt Asia

Ivaylo
03 Oct, 2006
New York City

The Nikkei 225 Average in Tokyo finished the day 0.08% lower as as renewed concerns about quality problems at Sony took attention away from a strong debut by Nomura Real Estate Holdings. Hong Kong ended higher as Chinese companies benefiting from a strong yuan led the market higher. Australia advanced, while Taiwan closed lower. Markets in South Korea and mainland China were closed Tuesday for holidays.

[R]7:00AM A sharp drop in crude-oil prices brought stocks lower in Asia.[/R]
Asian markets finished lower on Tuesday. The Nikkei 225 Average in Japan finished the day 0.08% lower at 16242.09. Sony shed 2.7%, having sunk 5.3% since Thursday on a lot of unwelcome news involving faulty laptop batteries as well as reservations about its flagship games console. Oil stocks also dipped after oil futures slid Monday on U.S. markets. Oil explorer Inpex Holdings dropped 3.9%.

Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong gained 0.36% to close at 17606.53. Recently listed China Merchants Bank surged 6.7%, and China Mobile advanced 1.6%. The advances in the two Chinese firms came after the tightly-controlled yuan has moved up at an unprecedented pace in the past two weeks.

Taipei shed 0.06% to 6956.88 and S&P/ASX 200 in Australia closed 0.11% higher at 5184.30. In Australia, a favorable cocktail of domestic economic data spurred buying of stocks, resulting in the seventh consecutive daily rise by the market. Lower oil prices weighed down energy stocks, as Woodside Petroleum fell 2.9%, but helped airlines gained, as Qantas gained 1.5%.

[R]6:30AM Tech and enegry stocks weigh Europe down on Tuesday.[/R]
European markets were lower by mid morning on Tuesday. The FTSE 100 in London lost 0.5% to 5,927.5, while Frankfurt Xetra Dax fell 0.7% to 5,957.65 and in Paris, the CAC 40 shed 0.7% to 5,206.45.

Decliners

Infineon, the German chipmaker, fell 1.7% after Rabo Securities downgraded the stock. Franco-Italian chipmaker STMicroelectronics shed 1.5% and Dutch chip equipment maker ASML fell 1%.

Oil producers fell after crude prices sank overnight on speculation that US supplies will continue to build in spite of Opec production cuts. Finnish refiner Neste Oil fell 3.2%, while Statoil of Norway fell 2.9%. Total of France shed 1.1 % and Repsol in Spain lost 1.1%.

Spanish property group Metrovacesa gave back some its recent gains as its shares retreated 3.3% and Eon, the German utility, fell 0.8%.

Advancers

Shares of miner Xstrata rose 2.8% after it said that it''s issuing 2.9 billion pounds ($5.5 billion) in discounted shares, to help refinance a $7 billion temporary facility to buy the Canadian miner Falconbridge. Tesco advanced 0.7% after it said that its first-half net profit rose 23%, as revenue from continuing operations rose 20.8%.

Oil and gold

Crude oil for November delivery dropped 54 cents to $60.49 a barrel in electronic trading on the NYME at midday in Europe. November Brent crude at London ICE Futures exchange fell 69 cents to $59.76 a barrel.

Gold slipped as low as $591.70 an ounce and was quoted at $592.80/593.80 in early morning, down from $597.50/598.25 late in New York on Monday.

Currencies

The euro rose to $1.2758, up from $1.2742. The U.S. dollar traded at 117.66 yen, up from 117.60 yen from late Monday. The pound was at 67.59 pence in London, compared with 67.57 pence late yesterday.

[R]5:00AM Gold futures ended flat on Monday, while silver managed to rise.[/R]
The most-active December gold sank 90 cents at $603.30 a troy ounce. December silver futures added 10 cents up at $11.64 an ounce. January platinum settled up $9 at $1,159.20 an ounce. December palladium ended down $2.25 at $314.15 an ounce. December copper lost 3.10 cents to finish at $3.4295 per pound.

The front-month November light, sweet crude oil contract settled down $1.88 at $61.03 a barrel. November heating oil declined 5.17 cents to close at $1.7018 a gallon. Front month unleaded gasoline settled down 4.52 cents at $1.5087 a gallon. October natural gas advanced 2.3 cents at $5.643 a million British thermal units.

On the New York Board of Trade, December Arabica coffee futures closed down 4.10 cents at $1.0355 a pound and March lost 4.10 cents at $1.0740, spurred in part by beneficial weekend rainfall in Brazil. Futures on raw sugar in foreign ports for March slipped 0.43 cent at 11.32 cents a pound and May lost 0.35 cent to 11.50 cents.