Regional Market Update
Markets higher on Wall St rally
· Asian markets were mostly higher on strong overnight gains in Wall St. Rosy fiscal year forecast from shipping giant FedEx--viewed as a bellwether of the economy--and data showing U.S. new home sales for June beat expectations lifted the Dow by 0.97% to 10,525.43, its highest close since May 17. New U.S. home purchases increased from May to an annual pace of 330,000 ahead of median forecast of economists for an advance to 310,000.
Australia and New Zealand
· The Australian market was spurred by Wall Street's rise and tapped a fresh four-week high of 4,520.3. Banking stocks rose 0.7% to 1.9%, led by Westpac's 1.9% rise. In the materials space, BHP Billiton added 0.4%, while Rio Tinto advanced 0.7%. Wesfarmers rose 1.2% after brokers upgraded the stock after Monday's strong fourth-quarter sales report.
Japan
· The Tokyo market eked out modest gains on Wall Street's rise, but demand was capped by the yen's strength against the U.S. dollar on Monday. Inpex Corp added 0.4% after it finalized on Monday the terms of a new share issue set to raise close to $6 billion to fund a major natural gas project in Australia. It set the fixed offering price at Y417,100 per share, a 3% discount to its closing price of Y430,000 Monday.
· Exporters were mixed, with Sony off 0.2%, Canon off 0.9%, while Sharp rose 0.9%. Among automakers, Toyota Motor fell 1.6%, while Nissan Motor rose 0.8% on hopes of strong first-quarter earnings, due Thursday.
Taiwan
· Taiwan’s benchmark Taiex index edged down as losses on financials, telecom and resources stocks outweighed gains in tech and industrials.
China
· China’s stocks dropped for the first time in seven days on concern about rising credit risks at banks and speculation recent gains for commodity producers were excessive given the prospects for slowing economic growth.
· ICBC and CCB retreated on concern banks may have to slow lending to local governments. China Shenhua Energy Co. and China Coal Energy Co., the nation’s top two coal producers, slid after coal prices lost the most in four months. Jiangxi Copper Co. dropped the most in a week, pacing declines for stocks that are dependent on economic growth.
Hong Kong
· Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index opened higher powered by gains in financials, energy and commodity stocks. Exporters were also higher following a healthy rally in U.S. markets.
Singapore
· Singapore’s Strait Times index was the best performing market in the region up over 0.5% on gains in shippers, developers and financials. Shippers were up on gains in Baltic dry index. Parkway Holdings Asia’s biggest hospital operator rose 1% to S$3.92. Khazanah., Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, said it offered S$3.5 billion or S$3.95 a share, for the 76.1 percent it doesn’t already own in Parkway, Asia’s biggest hospital operator. That is higher than a bid from India’s Fortis Healthcare Ltd.
· Singapore Airlines, the world’s second- largest carrier by market value, gained 1.6% to S$15. The company said first-quarter net income was S$252.5 million, compared with a loss of S$307.1 million a year earlier. That beat the S$162.4 million average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Currency Updates
Date | 27-Jul-10 | ||||
| USD | EUR | GBP | JPY | INR |
USD | 1.0000 | 1.3016 | 1.5500 | 0.0115 | 0.0213 |
EUR | 0.7683 | 1.0000 | 1.1910 | 0.8836 | 0.0164 |
GBP | 0.6452 | 0.8396 | 1.0000 | 0.7420 | 0.0138 |
JPY | 86.9600 | 113.1700 | 134.7800 | 1.0000 | 1.8540 |
INR | 47.0475 | 60.8630 | 72.7082 | 0.5395 | 1.0000 |
