HK, South Korea Set Record Highs

Ivaylo
13 Jul, 2007
New York City

Asia rallied Friday with several benchmark indexes setting record highs including Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia and India. Japan also gained on strong U.S. close overnight and exporters. Miners surged tracking Rio Tinto

[R]8:30AM Asia rallies with HK, South Korea leading the gainers, Japan advances on exporters.[/R]

Asian markets advanced on Friday.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 average gained 1.4% to 18,238. The market advanced after better-than-anticipated sales by U.S. retailers alleviated fears that a housing decline will hurt consumer spending in the U.S., the main export market for Japan. Canon, the world largest digital camera maker, advanced 1.7% and Honda, second-biggest automaker in Japan, jumped 2.5%. Nintendo Co., the biggest maker of hand-held game players in the world, advanced 1.1% in Osaka. Sharp, the biggest maker of liquid-crystal display televisions in Japan, advanced 1.3%.

In Seoul, the Kospi benchmark rallied 2.8% to 1,962. Samsung, the largest maker of chips and mobile phones in Asia, surged 6.4%, the biggest increase since January 2004. samsung released its quarterly figures today. Net income for the current quarter fell 5% to $1.6 billion. Posco, the fourth-biggest steelmaker, rallied 9.8%, the most since February 2002.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 index gained 0.4%, to 6,389. BHP, the world biggest mining company, gained 1.1%, a record high. Alumina, a partner with Alcoa Inc. in a venture with a quarter of the world alumina production capacity, gained 1.8%. Alumina was upped to neutral from reduce by UBS in Sydney. Rio Tinto fell 2.5%.

In Hong Kong, China Mobile, led the rally, climbing 3.3% in Hong Kong. Ping An Insurance, China second-biggest insurer, gained 3.8%.

In India, the Sensex on BSE, climbed nearly 181 points, or 1.2% to 15,272.72. Metals staged a strong rally with Hindalco soaring 6% and Tata Steel surging 3.4%. Other gainers included Reliance Industries, which gained 3% and Tata Motors which rose 3.8%.

[R]7:30AM NY – 6:30 PM Mumbai Sensex spurts 181 points led by rally in metal stocks.[/R]

The Sensex on BSE finished 180.68 points higher Friday, or 1.20%, at 15,272.72.

The benchmark index opened 125 higher on strong cues from global markets and reached an intra-day high of 15,331, a record high. The market-breadth turned negative in the afternoon session as both small-cap and mid-cap stocks came under strong selling pressure. As 1,154 stocks advanced, 1,529 declined and 54 were unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, 22 advanced, while the rest declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 6,714 crore , compared with Rs 6,113 crore on Thursday. On NSE, the turnover was Rs 14,883 crore, higher than Rs 12,882 crore on Thursday.

Economic news

The weekly wholesale price index in India rose in the last week of June to 4.27% from a year earlier, higher than 4.13% in the previous week and above analysts’ expectations of 4.10%, as prices of cereals, pulses and other food products increased. However, it was lower in comparison with the same time last year, which was 5.21%.

The Governor of the Reserve Bank of India Yaga Venugopal Reddy will announce the new interest rates in his next monetary policy statement on July 31. The bank has hiked the key repurchase rate, or the overnight lending rate, six times in the past 18 months.

Trading highlights

GMR Infrastructure was the most active stock with a turnover of Rs 396.60 crore followed by India Infoline and Reliance Industries.

Advancers of the Day

Metal stocks led today’s rally. Hindalco soared 6% to Rs 174 on hopes of consolidation in the global aluminum industry after Rio Tinto launched today, 13 July 2007, a $38.1-billion offer to buy Canada''s Alcan Inc. Other metal shares which rose were SAIL zooming 10.5% to Rs 160, Hindustan Zinc soaring 8% to Rs 798 and Sterlite Industries up 3.5% to Rs 665. Tata Steel also surged 3.4% to Rs 695.

Index heavy Reliance Industries advanced nearly 3% to Rs 1,769. Reportedly, the government has appointed a group of ministers to analyze all aspects from production to pricing of gas to be produced from newer areas, particularly in the deep sea.

Cement stocks gained on renewed buying after cement sales rose of 4.6% in June 2007 compared with June 2006. ACC was up 2.2% to Rs 1,096, UltraTech Cement gained 2.9% to Rs 925, Ambuja Cements advanced 2.1% to Rs 129 and Grasim Industries added 1.8% to Rs 2,871.

Auto stocks were in demand as fears of interest rate hike in near future faded. Tata Motors gained 3.8% to Rs 767, Mahindra & Mahindra rose 2.7% to Rs 825 and Maruti Udyog advanced 0.7% to Rs 833.

Decliners of the Day

TCS led the decliners down 2.1% to Rs 1,137. Dr.Reddy''s lost 2% to Rs 668 and Hindustan Unilever shed 1.5% to Rs 203 while Ranbaxy also dipped 1.5% to Rs 353. Three companies were 1% lower with Reliance Communications down 1.2% to Rs 555, and Cipla and Bajaj Auto 1% lower each to Rs 211 and Rs 2,175, respectively.

[R]6:30AM European markets are higher Friday with Frankfurt leading the region higher.[/R]

By mid-day trade, national benchmarks rose in all 17 western European markets that were open, except Austria. The DAX 30 index in Germany was trading up 0.9% at 8,124.56, the French CAC-40 index was up 0.6% at 6,137.14 and the U.K.''s FTSE 100 index gained 0.4% at 6,724.50.

Saab AB rose the most in a month, up 1.9%, after the builder of the Gripen fighter plane reported a 48% growth in earnings. Nokia, the world largest mobile handset maker, gained 1.6%.

In Frankfurt, BASF led the advance after UBS upped its price estimate for shares of the largest chemical maker in the world. BASF rose 1.6%. BMW and Volkswagen AG gained after an industry group announced the first rise in European car sales in five months. BMW added 0.6% and Volkswagen rallied 0.8%. GPC Biotech surged 5.6% as Goldman Sachs Group added the unprofitable biotechnology company to its pan-European conviction buy list, on the stock''s attractive valuation.

In Paris, French stocks rose, led by Schneider Electric SA and Alstom SA. Schneider gained 2%, after Citigroup hiked its recommendation on the stock to buy from hold. Alstom, the third-biggest maker of power plants in the world, climbed 0.8 % as Citigroup. also raised its share-price estimate by 27 % on the stock. JPMorgan also lifted its recommendation on the stock to neutral from underweight. On the downside, L''Oreal fell 2.2% after the group posted a 9.4% increase in first-half sales to 8.51 billion euros, broadly in line with expectations, but with a mixed performance in the French and German markets.

In London, U.K. stocks were led higher by Vodafone, up 1.1%, after UBS AG raised its price estimate on the stock. Royal Bank of Scotland, the. second-biggest bank in the U.K, climbed 1.2%. Barclays, the third-largest bank, advanced 0.4%. Ladbrokes added 2.1%, as Deutsche Bank AG raised its recommendation on the world largest publicly-traded gaming company to buy from hold.

Currencies

The euro neared a record high against the dollar on Friday as concerns persisted about the strength of the U.S. economy. The euro traded at $1.3792 overnight, and bought $1.3781 in morning European trading. The British pound edged lower against the dollar, trading at $2.0296 from its level late Thursday of $2.0304. The dollar slipped to 122.33 Japanese yen from 122.41 yen.


[R]5:30AM Gold gains Thursday as dollar softens, copper also declines, gasoline drops.[/R]

August gold reached $671 an ounce in intraday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, then finished up $6.20 at $668.30 an ounce.

September silver advanced 20.5 cents to end at $13.18 an ounce.

September copper slid 4.05 cents to finish at $3.581 a pound on the Nymex.

Lead finished flat while zinc rose 2%.

Energy prices declined as several refineries restarted operations, raising hopes for increased gasoline output.

Crude oil jumped first more than $1, then retreated to close down 6 cents at $72.50 a barrel.

Gasoline prices dipped 4 cents to settle at $2.2663 a gallon.

December corn gained 9.6 cents to close at $3.65 a bushel.

Wheat prices edged 0.4 cent lower to close at $6.214 a bushel.

Soybeans added 18.6 cents to settle at $9.414 a bushel.