Market Updates
Japan Slips, Shanghai Gains
Ivaylo
25 Apr, 2007
New York City
-
Asian markets finished lower on Wednesday, as losses in Tokyo in export-related shares led regional stocks down. Declines in U.S. housing sales and consumer-confidence caused concerns over the outlook for the most important export market of the region. Sony in Japan and Samsung in South Korea were both down, while Canon bucked the downtrend and advanced.
[R]9:00AM Asian markets finish lower Wednesday on weak export-oriented stocks.[/R]
Asian markets ended lower Wednesday. The Nikkei 225 ended 1.2% lower at 17,236.16. Export-oriented stocks plunged with Sony down 1.9%, Matsushita Electric falling 2.1%. Canon bucked the downtrend, advancing 1.5% after the digital camera and office-equipment maker posted group quarterly net profit increase of 21%, and raised its full-year earnings forecast.
Worries about the likelihood of more tightening measures from Beijing and U.S. home sales data saw the Hong Kong stock market decline. Hong Kong Hang Seng Index closed 0.2% lower at 20,536.78. Chinese financial stocks in Hong Kong dipped with China Construction Bank off 0.4%, ICBC down 0.5% and China Life declining 0.2%.
Elsewhere around the region, markets also finished lower. Sydney S&P/ASX 200 settled 0.3% lower at 6,188.20, while South Korean Kospi index was off 0.7% to end at 1,545.55. Taiwan Weighted Price Index slipped 0.8% to close at 7,984.65 while Shanghai Composite Index in China bucked the trend and ended up 0.7% at 3,743.95.
[R]8:00AM NY-7:00PM Mumbai Sensex ends higher Wednesday as Reliance Industries rallies.[/R]
The Sensex on BSE finished 81.05 points, or 0.57%, higher at 14,217.77.
The market-breadth was strong as there were three gainers for every two decliners. For 1,464 stocks which advanced, 1,058 declined and 77 stocks remained unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, 18 advanced, while the rest declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 5,175 crore, lifted by two block deals of 12.50 lakh shares each, at an average Rs 1209 per share in early trade, in the TCS. In comparison, the turnover on Tuesday was Rs 5,115.51 crore. On NSE, the turnover was Rs 11,078.22 crore, compared with Rs 10,897.9 crore on Tuesday.
Economic news
The Indian rupee surged to a new nine-year high on Wednesday on continued capital inflows into the country and as RBI chose not to intervene in order to limit the gains. In early trade, the rupee was at 41 per dollar, its strongest since May 1998. It had ended at 41.10 per dollar on Tuesday. IT companies were the worst hit by the appreciation of the rupee, as it directly impacts their revenue and profits, drawn from exports.
The target of 250 million phones are achievable according to the government, ahead of the December deadline this year. The government has set a new objective, planning 500 million connections by 2010, besides nine million broadband lines by 2007-end.
Trading highlights
TCS was the most-active stock with a turnover of Rs 330 crore followed by Indiabulls Real Estate and Reliance Industries.
Advancers
Ranbaxy led the advancers, soaring nearly 6% to Rs 369. The company announced on Wednesday that it had been granted a 180-day market exclusivity in the US for the 80-mg dosage of the drug pravastatin sodium tablets, used to treat cardiac diseases. The 80-mg tablet had annual sales of $209 million, while the market for all dosages of the drug was $1.19 billion a year. Other pharma stocks also rallied including Cipla up 5.4% to Rs 252 and Dr Reddy, rising 0.9% to Rs 720.
Index heavy Reliance Industries advanced 1.1% to Rs 1,600, on a volume of 8.69 lakh shares, recovering from a low of Rs 1,560, surging to a high of Rs 1,605.15. Auto stocks surged on fresh buying interest. Hero Honda added 4% to Rs 687 and Tata Motors rallied over 2% to Rs 759.
HDFC Bank advanced 1.62% to Rs 1,030, as it reported 30.5% growth in net profit for its fourth-quarter earnings results. The bank also posted a net profit of Rs 343.57 crore in the same quarter, against Rs 263.21 crore for the same time a year earlier, while total income increased to Rs 2,384.19 crore compared with Rs 1,682.65 crore, the previous year.
Other advancers included ITC rallying 3.4% to Rs 162 and Hindustan Lever adding 2% to Rs 211. Cement stocks also gained. Grasim grose 2.6% at Rs 2,442 and ACC added nearly 2% to Rs 833, while Gujarat Ambuja was up 1% at Rs 121. ONGC ended up 2.5% to Rs 973.
Decliners
IT stocks led the decliners tday as they came under selling pressure. Infosys Technologies slumped almost 2% to Rs 2,018 and Satyam slipped 1.8% to Rs 466. Tata Steel dipped 1.4% at Rs 571. Bharti Airtel was off 1% to Rs 863, while NTPC and Larsen & Toubro were also down around 1% each at Rs 157 and Rs 1,688, respectively.
[R]6:30AM European markets advanced Wednesday on merger deals.[/R]
European markets advanced on Wednesday. The U.K. FTSE 100 index rose 0.2% at 6,444.70, the German DAX Xetra 30 index increased 0.6% at 7,313.88 and the French CAC-40 index advanced 0.5% at 5,915.47. National benchmarks rose in 14 of the 17 western European markets that were open.
Advancers
Barclays advanced 2% after the consortium announcement and after ABN Amro also detailed how its agreed pact to sell its Chicago-based LaSalle operations to Bank of America for $21 billion can be broken.
German engineering company Siemens advanced 1.5% after it reported a 36% increase in quarterly net profit to 1.26 billion euros. Reportedly, the company is set to decide on the future of one of its top executives, Klaus Kleinfeld, on Wednesday.
LVMH Moet Hennessy gained 1.8% after posting first-quarter revenue rising 7% to 3.8 billion euros or rose 13% on a comparable basis.
Michelin shares rose 3.5% after the tire maker reported a 5.5% rise in first-quarter sales to 4.2 billion euros, after higher volumes and prices, and held to its fiscal year guidance.
Retailers were doing well as British supermarket chain J. Sainsbury was up 6.5% after a 250 million-share block trade spurred renewed takeover talk and as department store chain Marks & Spencer shares rose 2.3% after a management reshuffle.
Decliners
Shares for companies in the bidding consortium were down, with Royal Bank of Scotland dipping 1.1%, and Fortis down 2%. Spanish property companies kept losing ground, with Ibex-35 constituent Grupo Inmocaral down another 3.9% in Madrid as investors continued to worry about Spain property market bubble bursting.
Oil and precious metals
Crude oil rose after some U.S. refineries cut production while gasoline demand rose. Crude oil for June delivery rose 45 cents, or 0.7%, to $65.03 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude oil for June gained 74 cents, or 1.1%, to $67.90 a barrel on London ICE Futures exchange.
Gold broke two days of declines on speculation that a weakening dollar will increase investor demand for the precious metal. Gold for immediate delivery gained $2.20, or 0.3%, to 685.85 an ounce. Platinum rose $2.50 to $1,306.50, silver fell 0.5 cent to $13.78 an ounce and palladium gained $1.50 to $378.
Currencies
The dollar was lower against other major currencies in late European trading Wednesday morning. The euro traded at $1.3645, up from $1.3626 late Tuesday in New York. The British pound traded at $2.0045, up from $2.0000. The dollar fetched 118.65 Japanese yen, down from 118.68.
[R]5:00AM Corn surged Tuesday, while gold and silver declined.[/R]
On the Chicago Board of Trade, May corn ended up 8.25 cents at $3.6050 per bushel, July gained 7.25 cents to $3.7125, and December gained 4 cents to $3.7250.
June gold shed $6.50 to $687.70 a troy ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while July silver slipped 26.8 cents to $13.916 an ounce. July platinum finished down $20.20 at $1,311.50 an ounce, while June palladium lost $8.40 to close at $379 an ounce. The most-active July copper contract fell 8.15 cents to settle at $3.5640 per pound.
The July crude oil contract declined 1.22 cents to end at $65.89 a barrel. May gasoline settled down 1.82 cents at $2.2089 a gallon and the May heating oil contract ended down 4.83 cents at $1.8460 a gallon. May natural gas bucked the trend and settled up 3.6 cents at $7.598 per million British thermal units.
On the New York Board of Trade, the May Arabica coffee contract finished down 1.95 cents at $1.0440 a pound, with July off 1.75 cents at $1.0765.
Annual Returns
Company | Ticker | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 |
---|
Earnings
Company | Ticker | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 |
---|