Asian marts dive on Mideast, China news

Crude prices rose and stock markets plunged in Asia yesterday Thursday Mar 10 after a string of oil facilities were set ablaze in Libya’s conflict and as China announced a surprise trade deficit for February.



TOKYO’s Nikkei ended the session down 1.46 percent, or 155.12 points, at 10,434.38 and SYDNEY fell 1.43 percent, or 68.10 points, to 4,699.70, while SHANGHAI was down 1.46 percent in the afternoon .



WELLINGTON ended down 0.24 percent, or 8.19 points, at 3,406.23 as New Zealand’s central bank slashed the official cash rate by 0.5 points to 2.5 percent to boost the economy after the Christchurch earthquake.



Investors appeared to be adjusting for unrest in the Arab world to stretch on for an extended period, as Moamer Gaddafi’s forces pounded rebel lines in Libya, setting a string of oil facilities ablaze. The authorities in Tripoli played down the seriousness of the damage.



The Middle East and North Africa crisis “could be a big overhang on the equity markets for quite some time,” Gordon Kwan, head of energy research at Mirae Asset Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires.



The unexpected announcement of a rare trade deficit for China in February, of US$7.3 billion, also raised worries in the market.



Officials partly attributed the export slowdown to the Lunar New Year holiday, but rising prices for oil and other vital imports that fuel China’s economic boom were also a factor.



“The trade deficit data is likely to hurt market sentiment as it indicates the liquidity conditions may be not as ample as some investors think,” Guotai Junan Securities analyst Shi Weixiang said.



HONG KONG: Shares fell 0.82 percent yesterday, depressed by rising world oil prices and after China unexpectedly announced a rare trade deficit. The benchmark Index fell 195.22 points to 23,614.89, with turnover of HK$71.4 billion.

Chinese shares shed 1.50 percent, led by brokerages and metal firms after China announced the trade deficit for February, dealers said.

The Shanghai Composite Index, which covers both A and B shares, was down 45.01 points to 2,957.14 on turnover of 166.5 billion yuan.



SINGAPORE: The Straits Times Index dropped 0.6 percent to 3,075.44 at the close.

Shares on the measure trade at an average 14.1 times estimated earnings, compared with about 15.6 times at the end of 2010.

These shares were among the most active in the market: Noble Group dropped 3.3 percent to S$2.06, Olam International lost 0.4 percent to S$2.70 and Golden Agri-Resources slipped 2.2 percent to 67 Singapore cents.



KUALA LAMPUR: Share prices on Bursa Malaysia had once again slipped into their short and brief consolidations yesterday. Declining counters outpaced advancing counters by 483 to 253.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) fell from its intra-day high of 1,524.12 to its intra-day low of 1,515.32 yesterday. It closed at 1,516.91 points, giving a day-on-day loss of 6.78 points, or 0.44 percent.



In other markets:



* Manila rose 0.84 percent, or 33.08 points, to 3,959.94, in a rebound from end-of-February lows.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone rose 1.06 percent to 2,284 pesos, SM Investments climbed 1.39 pe rcent to 510 pesos, while Aboitiz Power advanced 0.16 percent to 30.85 pesos.



* Seoul fell 0.99 percent, or 19.89 points, to 1,981.58 as investors largely shrugged off the central bank’s rate hike.



* Taipei fell 1.22 percent, or 107.12 points, to 8,642.9.

Smart phone maker HTC fell 2.67 percent to TW$1,095.0, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co was 1.26 percent lower at TW$70.5.



VIETNAM: The VN Index gained 11.98 points or 2.55 percent to 482.49 pts and the HNX Index also rallied 3.86 points or 4.36 percent to 92.31 pts.

On the southern bourse, the total trading volume including matching order trade and negotiation transactions reached over 45.26 million shares valued at over 953.88 billion dong, up 51.01 percent in volume and 34.1 percent in value from the previous trading session.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), the total market trade was over 32.12 million shares for 464.15 billion dong, a day on day rise of 1.01 percent in volume and 4.33 percent in value.



EUROPE: The battle for control of Libya and weaker-than-expected Chinese economic data weighed on markets yesterday while a debt rating downgrade of Spain hit the euro, a day ahead of a crucial meeting of EU leaders.



The main impact has been in oil markets, sending prices up to their highest levels for around two and a half years.By mid-morning London time, the benchmark oil contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down 3 cents at US$104.35 a barrel, while Brent crude in London fell 71 cents to US$115.23.



In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 0.7 percent at 5,894 while Germany’s DAX fell 0.7 percent to 7,081. The CAC-40 in Paris was 0.8 percent lower at 3,962.



AMERICA: Weak economic news from China, the U.S. and Spain combined with a slump in oil companies sent stocks sharply lower Thursday. The Dow Jones industrial average had its biggest one-day drop since August.



The Dow Jones industrial average fell 228.48 points, or 1.9 percent, to close at 11,984.61. McDonald’s Corp. was the only stock in the Dow 30 that rose.



The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 24.91, or 1.9 percent, to 1,295.11. The Dow and S&P 500 are still up 3 percent since the start of the year.



The Nasdaq composite fell 50.70, or 1.8 percent, to 2,701.02.



Thursday’s drop in the Dow was the biggest since Aug. 11. The S&P had a larger fall recently, dropping 27.57 points on Feb. 22 as the uprising against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi gained strength.



News that forces loyal to Gadhafi were poised to recapture the strategic oil port of Ras Lanouf from opposition forces sent oil down in the morning. Crude bounced higher later in the day after Saudi Arabian police fired at protesters. Crude oil lost $1.68 to settle at $102.70 per barrel, below the high of nearly $107 a barrel it reached on Monday.



Stocks fell broadly, but energy companies were hit the hardest. Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest company in the world by market value, fell 3.6 percent. Chevron Corp. also fell 3 percent. Energy companies fell 3.6 percent, the most of any industry tracked by S&P.



Oil has been surging over the past few weeks because of the spreading protests in North Africa the Middle East. Libya produces less than 2 percent of the world’s oil supply, investors have been worried that unrest will spread to major oil-producing countries like Saudi Arabia and disrupt the flow of crude.



Only a handful of S&P 500 companies rose. Starbucks Corp. rose 10 percent after cementing a deal with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. to sell drinks in machines made by Keurig. Netflix Inc. rose 3.6 percent.



Apart from several sharp swings in the last month, stocks have been rising nearly continuously since last August, when the Federal Reserve said it would take steps to stimulate the economy. Wednesday marked two years since stocks bottomed out at 12-year lows.

Benchmark Currency Rates

        USD     EUR     JPY     GBP     CHF     CAD     AUD     HKD

HKD     7.7901  10.7585 0.0939  12.5195 8.3591  7.9947  7.8071  -

AUD     0.9978  1.3780  0.0120  1.6036  1.0707  1.0240  -       0.1281

CAD     0.9744  1.3457  0.0117  1.5660  1.0456  -       0.9765  0.1251

CHF     0.9319  1.2870  0.0112  1.4977  -       0.9564  0.9340  0.1196

GBP     0.6222  0.8593  0.0075  -       0.6677  0.6386  0.6236  0.0799

JPY     82.9415 114.546 -       133.296 88.9997 85.1197 83.1223 10.6471

EUR     0.7241  -       0.0087  1.1637  0.7770  0.7431  0.7257  0.0929

USD     -       1.3811  0.0121  1.6071  1.0730  1.0263  1.0022  0.1284

                                                              Bloomberg

Tags: Vietnam business, Vietnam business news

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