Dow Boosts Asia

Ivaylo
20 Oct, 2006
New York City

Japan and Australia led Asian stocks higher on Friday, as investors were upbeat, tracking a record-high close for the U.S. market while recovering oil prices after newly-announced production cuts by OPEC nations gave a boost to Inpex Holdings Inc., PetroChina and other energy companies. South Korea ended higher with diplomatic efforts still continuing to defuse the North Korean nuclear crisis.

[R]7:30AM Strong U.S. close and oil production cuts led Asia to a broad rise.[/R]
Asian markets finished broadly higher on Friday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.61% to finish at 16651.63. Canon gained 0.93% and Toyota added 1.47%. Machinery maker Komatsu climbed 1.83%, while Nippon Steel reported a 0.81% gain. Sony, however, shed 0.83% after the company revised its earnings forecast downward due to troubles with laptop batteries and delays at its games unit.

The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong rose 0.7% to end at 18113.55. The China Enterprises Index was up 0.4% to 7,469.80. The Shanghai Composite Index declined 0.3% a day after mainland authorities announced that GDP growth was 10.4% in the third quarter, down from 11.3% annualized growth it the second quarter.

Australia S&P/ASX 200 index closed up 1% at 5335.4. South Korea Kospi index advanced 0.8% and Singapore Straits Times Index was up 0.2%. Taiwan''s Taiex index rose 0.5% and Malaysia KLSE Composite traded nearly flat. Shares traded in New Zealand were lower 0.2%. Indonesia Jakarta Composite Index declined 0.1%.

[R]6:30AM European stocks advance on oil cuts and strong overnight U.S. finish.[/R]
European markets were higher by mid-morning on Friday. The U.K. FTSE 100 gained 0.44% at 6,183.30, the German DAX 30 rose 0.4% at 6,204.16, the French CAC 40 advanced 0.5% at 5,384.01.

Advancers

BP and Royal Dutch Shell each advanced 1%, boosted by the unexpected oil production cut by OPEC. Shares of PartyGaming gained 1.6%, following its statement that in the few days since U.S. customers were prevented from accessing the real money sites, average daily gross revenue of the non-U.S. facing business has been 2% below that of the third quarter.

Valeo, a French auto parts maker, also gained after recent slips. Valeo shares jumped 6.8% after it reported that its quarterly profit sank76%. Valeo agreed on a memorandum of understanding to sell its electrical motors and actuators unit for an undisclosed price.

Decliners

Corus Group declined 1.5% as investors were disapponted that it gave its agreement to be bought by Tata Steel for 4.3 billion pounds ($8 billion). Wolfson Microelectronics, a Scottish chipmaker producing chips for the iPod music device of Apple Computer, fell 30% after registering a build-up of inventory in consumer electronics products, leading to a fourth-quarter revenue guidance between $52 million and $57 million.

Oil and gold

Crude oil for November delivery advanced 40 cents to $58.90 a barrel in on the NYME. December Brent crude on London ICE Futures exchange rose 33 cents to $61.20 a barrel.

Gold opened on Friday at a bid price of $600.15 a troy ounce, up from $596.00 late Thursday.

Currencies

The euro was steady against the U.S. dollar Friday, holding onto gains that it made on disappointing U.S. economic data. The euro bought $1.2624 in morning European trading, barely changed from its level of $1.2626 in New York late Thursday. The British pound was unchanged at $1.8777. The dollar rose to 118.32 Japanese yen from 118.15 yen.

[R]5:00AM Gold and silver prices rallied on Thursday, boosted by the oil increase.[/R]
The most-active December gold gained $9.90 to end at $602.50 a troy ounce at the NYME. The most-active December silver contract held onto gains and settled 34 cents higher at $12.16 an ounce. January platinum gained $1.70 to finish at $1,094.80 an ounce, while December palladium edged up $4.90 to close at $337.40 an ounce. The most-active December copper contract rose 1.35 cent to end at $3.5095 per pound.

November light, sweet crude oil settled up 85 cents at $58.50 a barrel. November heating oil advanced 2.42 cents to stop at $1.7201 a gallon. November unleaded gasoline moved up 1.91 cents to close at $1.4894 a gallon. November natural gas settled up 32.5 cents at $7.132 a million British thermal units.

On the New York Board of Trade, December Arabica coffee futures closed 0.40 cent lower at $1.0185 a pound, with March down 0.40 cent at $1.0585. Futures on raw sugar in foreign ports for March finished unchanged at 11.59 cents a pound, with May steady at 11.74 cents.