Tokyo in limelight, leaps 4pct

Asian shares were mostly higher yesterday Tuesday Mar 22, with TOKYO soaring more than 4 percent, amid cautious optimism that Japan’s nuclear crisis could soon be under control.



But the ongoing military action in Libya continued to weigh on sentiment, while profit-taking pared earlier gains.



Japanese traders returned after Monday’s public holiday to send the Nikkei shooting 4.36 percent, or 401.57 points, higher to 9,608.32, with the mood helped after the Bank of Japan pumped 2 trillion yen into the money market.



But dealers warned any fragile optimism would quickly erode on signs of a setback in the delicate operations to restore power to overheating reactors at the Fukushima atomic plant, which was crippled by a March 11 quake and tsunami.



The Nikkei posted a second straight session of strong gains as crews looked to be making progress in their battle to avert a meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 plant that was battered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.



“Foreign investors were completely thrown off by Japan’s nuclear power plant problems but there is still room for them to buy back the undervalued shares,” Masayoshi Yano, a senior market analyst at Meiwa Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires.



Tepco, which operates the stricken plant and which lost about two-thirds of its value as the nuclear crisis unfolded last week, rose 15.8 percent Tuesday following a 19 percent leap on Friday as dealers ran back to the stock.



SHANGHAI was 0.34 percent up, adding 10 points to close at 2,919.14.



SEOUL rose 0.51 percent, or 10.24 points, to 2,013.66 and SYDNEY closed flat, edging up 0.6 points to 4,643.4.



HONG KONG: Shares ended 0.76 percent higher yesterday, in line with regional markets amid hopes Japanese crews are close to resolving the nuclear crisis.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index gained 172.68 points to close at 22,857.90.

In the short term, 23,000 is the upside resistance for the Hang Seng Index, analysts said.

Rangebound, speculative trading will continue to dominate until there is more clarity, they said.



SINGAPORE: The Singapore stock market rose yesterday but others in the region were flat in light volume, with worries about oil prices and inflation deterring investors.

The Straits Times Index gained 0.64 percent, or 19.24 points, to 3,002.75.

“Though sentiment is still cautious, there is room for some investors to look on the bright side,” said Song Seng Wun, a regional economist at Singapore-based CIMB-GK Research.”



KUALA LAMPUR: Share prices on Bursa Malaysia rebounded in early morning trade before slipping into a brief consolidation yesterday. Advancers outpaced decliners by 518 to 250.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) consolidated from a day high of 1,514.20 to a day low of 1,507.51 yesterday. It closed at 1,509.10, a day-on-day gain of 0.22 point, or 0.01 percent.



In other markets:



* Taipei closed 0.48 percent, or 40.33 points, higher at 8,508.04.



* Jakarta ended flat, edging down 1.12 points to 3,517.73.



* Manila gained 0.26 percent, or 9.84 points, to 3,854.15.



* Bangkok ended flat, edging 0.79 points down to 1,019.14.



* Mumbai rose 0.84 percent, or 149.25 points, at 17,988.3.



VIETNAM: The VN Index slipped 3.45 points or 0.74 percent to 464.8 pts meanwhile the HNX Index dropped another 1.67 points or 1.76 percent to 93.17 pts.



EUROPE: European stock markets diverged narrowly yesterday, with London dented slightly by profit-taking and poor economic data, while traders kept a keen eye on developments in Japan and Libya.



The British capital’s benchmark FTSE 100 index eased 0.11 percent to 5,779.72 points in midday trade, and Frankfurt’s DAX 30 fell 0.19 percent to 6,803.32.



In Paris, the CAC 40 rose 0.20 percent to 3,912.20, and the Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone companies won 0.30 percent to 2,869.42 points.



“As the morning progressed we have started to see some investors bank profits, and this has forced the FTSE and DAX into negative territory on the day,” said City Index analyst Joshua Raymond.



“However, its too early to tell whether this is the start of a broader move by investors to bank profits.”



AMERICA: Stocks edged lower Tuesday, ending a three-day rally that had lifted the Dow Jones industrial average above 12,000 for the first time since an earthquake hit Japan more than a week ago.



The Dow dipped 17.90 points to close at 12,018.63. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 4.61, or 0.4 percent, to 1,293.77. The Nasdaq composite index fell 8.22, or 0.3 percent, to 2,683.87.



A day with such little change for stocks has been rare so far in March. The Dow has moved up or down by at least 100 points in four of the five previous trading days. Developments in Japan’s nuclear crisis and the violence in Libya have been driving the volatility.



The Dow jumped 3.6 percent over the previous three days, its biggest gain since September. That has nearly brought the Dow back to its close of 12,044 on March 11, the day the earthquake struck Japan.



“We’ve had a really nice rally off the lows, but I think there are too many uncertainties still revolving around Libya and the recovery in Japan to give people the confidence to break the market through 1,300 on the S&P,” said Carlton Neel, senior portfolio partner at Virtus Investment Partners.



Crude oil prices, a major source of concern since mid-February, rose $1.88 to settle at $104.97 per barrel. Oil briefly topped $105 on concerns that conflicts in the Middle East could pinch oil supplies as demand begins to rise.



Among the most active stocks, online video and DVD provider Netflix Inc. climbed 4 percent to $221.39. Credit Suisse upgraded the company on expectations it will expand its services overseas.



Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. rose 1 percent to $26.29. The company said late Monday that a new study of its melanoma drug helped patients with advanced skin cancer.



Walgreen Co. fell 6.6 percent to $39.21. The drugstore chain’s bottom-line results were in line with expectations but the company’s profit margin wasn’t as strong as investors hoped.



Carnival Corp. fell 4.5 percent to $39.16 after its forecast for earnings this quarter fell short of expectations. Higher fuel prices are hindering its profits.



Stocks climbed consistently between Sept. 1 and Feb. 18, when the Dow closed at 12,391. That was the highest close since June 5, 2008. Stocks have dropped since then on worries that uprisings in Libya and across the Middle East could disrupt oil supplies.



The earthquake-tsunami disaster in Japan and the crisis at the country’s nuclear plants that followed also sent stocks lower, though stocks in Japan and the U.S. have recovered in recent days on signs that the situation at the plants is stabilizing.



Falling shares outnumbered rising ones by a four-to-three margin on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated trading volume was 3.7 billion shares.

Benchmark Currency Rates

        USD     EUR     JPY     GBP     CHF     CAD     AUD     HKD

HKD     7.7956  11.0402 0.0964  12.7522 8.6247  7.9350  7.8582  -

AUD     0.9920  1.4049  0.0123  1.6228  1.0976  1.0098  -       0.1273

CAD     0.9824  1.3913  0.0121  1.6071  1.0869  -       0.9903  0.1260

CHF     0.9039  1.2801  0.0112  1.4786  -       0.9200  0.9111  0.1159

GBP     0.6113  0.8657  0.0076  -       0.6763  0.6222  0.6162  0.0784

JPY     80.9050 114.578 -       132.345 89.5096 82.3511 81.5539 10.3782

EUR     0.7061  -       0.0087  1.1551  0.7812  0.7187  0.7118  0.0906

USD     -       1.4162  0.0124  1.6358  1.1064  1.0179  1.0080  0.1283

                                                              Bloomberg

Tags: Vietnam companies, vietnam enterprices

Posted by VBN on Mar 23 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