Investors cheered by G7 pledge

Asian stocks gained yesterday Friday Mar 18 after the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations vowed to intervene in forex markets to stem the yen’s rise and support Japan’s economy amid a nuclear crisis after a record earthquake.



Traders immediately welcomed the decision after the morning talks between authorities in Japan, the US, the eurozone, Canada and Britain, with the yen sliding almost immediately against the dollar and European single unit.



And oil resumed its upward march after the United Nations agreed to air strikes on forces fighting for Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi as he wages an offensive against anti-government rebels.



In early European trade the US dollar was at 81.37 yen, compared with 78.95 in late US trade on Thursday and the euro bought 114.35 yen from 110.67.



The weakening yen boosted Japan’s exporters yesterday, sending TOKYO’s Nikkei stock index closing 2.72 percent, or 244.08 points, higher at 9,206.75.



Among the biggest gainers was Tepco, the operator of the crippled plant, which closed 19 percent higher after losing around two-thirds of its value over the week.



However, the market was still more than 10 percent down over the week after diving 16 percent on Monday and Tuesday, its biggest two-day loss in 24 years.



News of the intervention had a knock-on effect for the rest of the region, with SYDNEY ending 1.56 percent, or 71.1 points, higher at 4,626.4 and SHANGHAI adding 0.33 percent, or 9.59 points, to end at 2,906.89.



SEOUL ended 1.13 percent, or 22.10 points, higher at 1,981.13.



HONG KONG: Shares ended higher yesterday after the Group of Seven nations agreed to a joint currency intervention to stop the yen’s rise while bargain hunters moved in after big losses.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index edged up 15.80 points to 22,300.23.

“Trading sentiment remains cautious as investors remain concerned over the nuclear crisis in Japan,” Daniel So, analyst of Sun Hung Kai Financial, told Dow Jones Newswires.



SINGAPORE: Most Southeast Asian stock markets posted small gains on yesterday at the end of a volatile week dominated by Japan’s nuclear crisis.

In Singapore, the Straits Times Index fell 0.24 percent, or 7.10 points, to close at 2,935.78 after climbing almost 1 percent at one point.

Oil-rig maker Keppel Corp was down 0.70 percent to S$11.40 and motor vehicle distributor Jardine Cycle and Carriage lost 0.95 percent to S$33.42.



KUALA LAMPUR: The FTSE Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) staged a mild technical rebound amid gloomy market sentiment in the week just ended. It stayed above its critical support of 1,500 points when it closed at 1,503.89 yesterday.



In other markets:



* Taipei finished 1.35 percent, or 112.06 points, up at 8,394.75.



* Manila closed 0.33 percent, or 12.50 points, higher at 3,829.88.



* Jakarta rose 0.28 percent, or 9.85 points, to 3,494.07.



* Bangkok edged up 0.94 points to 1,003.29.



* Mumbai closed 1.49 percent, or 271.06 points, lower at 17,878.81.



VIETNAM: The VN Index gained 0.55 points or 0.12 percent to 461.08 pts, the HNX Index also bounced another 2.83 points or 3.06 percent to 95.21 pts.

On the Hochiminh Stock Exchange (STC), the total trading volume reached over 50.73 million shares worth over 1.233 trillion dong, a day on day rise of 49.01 percent in volume and 60.06 percent in value.

On the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), the total market trade reached over 53.1 million shares worth over 828.33 billion dong, increasing 62.65 percent in volume and 59.12 percent in value from the previous trading session.



EUROPE: European shares, led by industrials, rose yesterday after the Group of Seven nations helped calm market nerves over the Japanese earthquake-tsunami disaster by intervening to restrain a soaring yen.



The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares was up 0.4 percent at 1,091.00 points by 0912 GMT, having closed up 1.8 percent on Thursday. The industrial sector featured among the best performers, with the STOXX Europe 600 Industrial Goods & Services rising 1.4 percent.



“The G7 intervention is calming the markets, but we still need a few days of consolidation to think we are over the worst of it,” Giles Watts, head of equities at City Index, said.



In early trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.4 percent to 5,721.01. Germany’s DAX was 1 percent higher to 6,726.47 and France’s CAC-40 rose 1 percent to 3,826.61.



AMERICA: Stocks ended a rough week with slight gains Friday after Libyan government forces declared a cease-fire and a group of the world’s seven largest countries announced a plan to bring the yen down from historic highs.



Financial stocks rose after JPMorgan and other large banks increased their dividends. JP Morgan said it was increasing its dividend to 25 cents a share from 5 cents. Wells Fargo and U.S. Bancorp also raised their dividends.



The Dow Jones industrial average gained 83.93 points, or 0.7 percent, to 11,858.52. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 5.49, or 0.4 percent, to 1,279.21. The Nasdaq composite index gained 7.62, or 0.3 percent, to 2,643.67.



All three stock indexes ended the week lower after markets were battered by worries over Japan’s ability to get its nuclear crisis under control. The Dow lost 1.5 percent, the S&P 500 1.9 percent and the Nasdaq 2.6 percent.



Japan is the world’s third-largest economy after the U.S. and China and buys 10 percent of U.S. exports. Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei index closed 2.7 percent higher after the announcement from the Group of Seven nations late Thursday.



Thousands of people have been killed in the earthquake and tsunami that followed, and hundreds of thousands are homeless. Quake damage and power cuts have forced Toyota Motor Corp. and other manufacturers to suspend production in parts of the country.



Oil prices hovered between small gains and losses after Libya’s foreign minister declared a cease-fire. The announcement came hours after the Union Nations authorized air strikes against the country.



More than two stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated trading volume was 5.3 billion shares.

Benchmark Currency Rates

        USD     EUR     JPY     GBP     CHF     CAD     AUD     HKD

HKD     7.7998  11.0614 0.0968  12.6617 8.6565  7.9246  7.7677  -

AUD     1.0041  1.4240  0.0125  1.6300  1.1144  1.0202  -       0.1287

CAD     0.9842  1.3958  0.0122  1.5978  1.0924  -       0.9802  0.1262

CHF     0.9010  1.2778  0.0112  1.4627  -       0.9154  0.8973  0.1155

GBP     0.6160  0.8736  0.0076  -       0.6837  0.6259  0.6135  0.0790

JPY     80.5840 114.282 -       130.816 89.4354 81.8735 80.2528 10.3316

EUR     0.7051  -       0.0088  1.1447  0.7826  0.7164  0.7022  0.0904

USD     -       1.4182  0.0124  1.6234  1.1098  1.0160  0.9959  0.1282

                                                              Bloomberg

Tags: Vietnam companies

Posted by VBN on Mar 19 2011. Filed under Enterprises. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry