Posts Tagged MSCI Asia Pacific Index

Asian Stocks Fall to Two-Week Low

Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Fund Markets on Ноябрь 24th, 2009

Asian stocks fell, dragging the MSCI Asia Pacific Index to a two-week low, amid speculation Japanese and Chinese banks will have to sell shares to replenish capital.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., Japan’s second- largest bank by market value, fell 4.4 percent after the Nikkei newspaper said banks are preparing a new round of share sales. Bank of China Ltd. slumped 4 percent in Hong Kong after saying it’s studying options to raise funds. Suning Appliance Co., China’s biggest home appliance retailer, fell 5.5 percent in Shanghai on valuation concerns.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.9 percent to 116.68 as of 6:02 p.m. in Tokyo, set to close at the lowest level since Nov. 6. The gauge has climbed 65 percent from a more than five- year low on March 9 on signs government stimulus measures are helping revive the world economy. A global rally yesterday drove the MSCI World Index up by the most in two weeks.

“Markets have had a huge run on expectations of a recovery,” said Matt Riordan, who helps manage about $5.1 billion at Paradice Investment Management in Sydney. “We’re in a period now where signals that the recovery has been priced in are coming through. The market is discriminating a lot more in terms of stocks.”  Read the rest of this entry »

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European Stocks Gain for Seventh Day

Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Favourites, Fund Markets on Июль 21st, 2009

European stocks advanced for a seventh day, the longest stretch of gains since August 2007, as William Morrison Supermarkets Plc led a rally by retailers.

Morrison jumped 7.3 percent after saying earnings will beat its forecasts. Actelion Ltd., Switzerland’s biggest biotechnology company, added 4.3 percent after raising its sales and profit outlook for the year. Nokia Oyj slipped 1.7 percent after Morgan Stanley recommended selling shares of the world’s largest maker of mobile phones.

Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index added 0.4 percent to 214.06 at 8:59 a.m. in London. The measure has climbed 8.6 percent since July 10 after companies from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to Johnson & Johnson reported results that beat analysts’ estimates and the Conference Board’s gauge of the U.S. economic outlook increased for a third straight month.

‘Going forward, we should make gains,” said Jeremy Beckwith, who oversees $9.9 billion as chief investment officer at Kleinworth Benson in London. “Data is showing that later this year and next year economic growth is returning.”

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.2 percent today before earnings reports from Caterpillar Inc., the world’s biggest maker of construction equipment, and Apple Inc., maker of the iPhone. Analysts estimate profits for companies on the S&P 500 fell an average 33 percent in the second quarter and will decrease 20 percent from July through September, according to Bloomberg data.  Read the rest of this entry »

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Dollar Weakens; Stocks Rebound

Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Favourites, Investing on Июнь 24th, 2009

The dollar weakened on concern that the Federal Reserve will signal it has no intention of raising interest rates with the global economy in its worst recession since World War II. Metals rose, buoying emerging-market stocks.

The U.S. currency lost 0.2 percent against the euro at 9:50 a.m. in London, 1 percent versus the Norwegian krone and 0.9 percent compared with the New Zealand dollar. Copper led an advance in industrial metals. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose 1.9 percent, the biggest increase in two weeks, and the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index of European shares rebounded from its worst two-day decline since April.

“Speculation about ongoing low-rate policy by the Fed is a burden to the U.S. dollar,” a team of analysts led by Viola Stork at Helaba Landesbank Hessen Thueringen in Frankfurt wrote in a research note today. There is an “expectation that the Fed is not going to signal any change in its rate policy today,” the report said.

The chances that the U.S. central bank will increase its target interest rate for overnight loans by the end of the year diminished to 40 percent from 50 percent a week ago, based on trading in Fed funds futures. Policy makers’ determination to prop up the world’s biggest economy prompted investors to seek higher returns outside the U.S. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said today the world’s most- industrialized economies will contract 4.1 percent this year and grow 0.7 percent in 2010.  Read the rest of this entry »

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South Korean Stocks, Won Drop After North Tests Nuclear Weapon

Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Fund Markets on Май 25th, 2009

South Korea’s stocks and won fell after North Korea said it had successfully tested a nuclear weapon and Yonhap News reported that the communist nation also launched a short-range missile.

The Kospi stock index declined as much as 6.3 percent, before paring its losses to close down 0.2 percent. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said the successful underground test would “bolster its nuclear deterrent for self defense.” The won also pared losses to close 0.1 percent weaker as South Korea said it would discuss any response with the U.S., which may include sanctions.

The test may intensify tension in the Korean peninsula and is the latest blow to efforts to persuade the impoverished North to abandon nuclear weapons development in exchange for economic aid. The Kospi fell as much as 3.6 percent and closed 2.4 percent lower on Oct. 9, 2006, when North Korea conducted its first nuclear test. The gauge rose 0.7 percent the next day.

The impact “from such news is usually short-lived and this is likely to be the case again unless we see a clear change in the political scene, which I doubt at this stage,” said Thomas Harr, a currency strategist at Standard Chartered Plc in Singapore.  Read the rest of this entry »

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