Australia Powers Asia

Ivaylo
03 Nov, 2006
New York City

Japan was closed fot public holiday. The Australian index rose to a record intraday high after National Australia Bank posted earnings. The leading index in Hong Kong also hit a fresh record on gains in mainland cellular operator China Mobile. South Korea trimmed earlier loses to finish marginally higher. Taiwan and Malaysia both gained. Singapore bucked the trend and sank.

[R]7:30AM Asian markets end mostly higher, Australia leads the way.[/R]
Asian markets closed mostly higher on Friday. Japanese market was closed for public holiday. Australia S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.4% to end at 5,432.00, topping a record set in the previous session on strong results from the biggest lender of the nation, National Australia Bank.

The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong set an intraday record peak of 18,771.01, before settling back to end up 34.01 points, or 0.2%, at 18,749.69, with gains connected with advances in property shares and wireless giant China Mobile. Other indexes around the region also gained. The Kospi in South Korea bounced back from earlier losses to end marginally 0.01% higher.

Taiwan Weighted Price Index advanced 1.2% and Malaysia KLSE Composite Index was up 0.1%. Singapore Straits Times Index traded nearly flat. Indonesia JSX Composite Index reached 1,617.00, before easing slightly to end 0.2% higher at 1,611.50, a record close.

[R]6:30AM European stocks gain modestly in early Friday trading on banks.[/R]
European markets were slightly higher by mid morning on Friday. The FTSE 100 in London was flat at 6,147.4, Frankfurt Xetra Dax added 0.2% to 6,232.71 and the CAC 40 in Paris edged fractionally higher to 5,311.98.

Advancers

Commerzbank led the advancers after it topped forecasts with third-quarter net profit and announced it was on track to deliver one of the best full-year results in its history. Commerzbank shares gained 3.7%.

Allianz gained 1%. The insurance giant said that its third-quarter net income rose 100.4% to 1.6 billion euros ($2 billion) after a gain of 300 million euros from selling one of its units.

Swiss recruitment group Adecco moved 3.4% higher after beating expectations with a 38% rise in third-quarter net profit as its recent merger with Germany DIS paid off and it focused on professional staffing.

Saipem, the Italian oilfield services group, rose 2.9% after Merrill Lynch raised its rating to buy and its price target. Merrill said the recent lacklustre performance of Saipem reflected concerns about its Snamprogetti engineering division.

Decliners

British Airways lost 1.5% after it its second-quarter pretax profit dropped 27% to 176 million pounds, while sales rose 4.9% to 2.3 billion pounds.

Packaging company and can maker Rexam declined 4.2% after it said that, although the majority of its plastic packaging operation continues to trade matching expectations, customer product launches in make-up have not materialized.

Oil and gold

Crude oil for December delivery rose 2 cents to $57.90 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. December Brent crude on London''s ICE Futures Exchange gained 6 cents to $57.93 a barrel.

Gold opened Friday at a bid price of $622.80 a troy ounce, up from $621.00 late Thursday.

Currencies

The euro was little changed against the U.S. dollar on Friday ahead of new jobs data from the US economy. The euro bought $1.2773 in morning European trading, only just below its level of $1.2779 in New York late Thursday. The British pound stood at $1.9086, compared with $1.9088 on Thursday. The dollar slipped to 117.04 Japanese yen from 117.12 yen.

[R]5:00AM Gold futures reached fresh high Thursday on weak US dollar.[/R]
Gold for December delivery ended up $8.50 at $627.80 an ounce on the NYME. December silver futures climbed 17.5 cents to end at $12.65 an ounce after rising more than 20 cents in the previous session. January platinum closed up $63.50, or 5.6%, at $1,164.20 an ounce. Palladium saw its December contract also climb $2.65 to close at $326.75 an ounce. And after falling just over 3% on Wednesday, December copper rose 5.05 cents to end at $3.2915 a pound.

Crude oil for December delivery closed down 83 cents at $57.88 a barrel on the NYME. December unleaded gasoline futures closed down 0.99 cent at $1.4531 a gallon. December heating-oil futures fell by 1.18 cents to end at $1.6397 a gallon. Natural-gas futures for December delivery closed up 10.2 cents at $7.814 per million British thermal units.

Arabica coffee futures for December delivery closed 1.9 cents higher at $1.1055 a pound. March futures on raw sugar in foreign ports settled 0.03 cents higher at 11.53 cents a pound.