Most Asian stock markets rebounded on Friday, wrapping up a turbulent week characterized by growing anxiety over a slowdown in the US economy and fallout from the credit crisis there.
Those fears would likely weigh on sentiment into next week, analysts said.
But with no bad news overnight from the US due to the holiday there on Thursday, investors bid up stocks in Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.
PHOTO: AFP
"The market was free of bad news from the US, thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday," said Anothai Chiengtawan, an analyst with IV Global Securities in Bangkok.
In Taiwan and South Korea, however, shares fell, and Tokyo was closed for a holiday.
Hong Kong shares rebounded from two days of steep losses, lifted by property developers and oil companies.
The blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 2.1 percent, or 536.17 points, to 26,541.09. The index had plunged 6.5 percent the previous two days.
"The market went up today just because of a technical rebound," said Kingston Lin, associate director of Prudential Brokerage, who predicted the index would fall to 25,400 next week.
"I don't think the upside is sustainable as a possible slowdown in US economic growth will cool investor sentiment in the short term," he said.
Domestic worries also weighed on the market.
"There is no catalyst now, after the suspension of the `through-train' scheme," said Peter Lai, a director at DBS Vickers.
He was referring to a plan announced by China in August that would allow mainland Chinese to invest directly in Hong Kong stocks. Beijing appears to have put the plan on hold.
Bucking the generally bearish outlook, tycoon Lee Shau-kee, chairman of property developer Henderson Land, was reported on Friday as saying he expects the benchmark index to rebound to 30,000 points by the end of this year.
He said he has set aside HK$10 billion (US$1.2 billion) to buy stocks.
The Hang Seng property subindex rose 3.1 percent on bargain-hunting and hopes for another US interest rate cut next month, traders said.
Hong Kong banks usually follow suit when the US Federal Reserve cuts lending rates.
Sino Land jumped 6.2 percent to HK$24, Sun Hung Kai Properties rose 2.4 percent to HK$140.50 and Henderson Land gained 1.9 percent to HK$59.80.
Offshore oil producer CNOOC was the biggest gainer among China oil companies.
It rose 4.4 percent to HK$13.30 on news of two oil discoveries in the South China Sea. Sinopec advanced 2.8 percent to HK$10.32, while Petrochina ended up 1.1 percent at HK$14.28.
On the Chinese mainland, airline and other shares surged on gains in the Chinese yuan, even as broader worries over the global economy capped the advance.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index added 1 percent, or 47.96 points, to 5,032.13, recovering from a 4.4 percent fall on Thursday that took the index to its lowest close since Aug. 22.
Airline companies rose after the official rate for the US dollar against the yuan was set at a record low level of 7.3992.
Airlines can benefit from a stronger yuan because they often carry large amounts of foreign currency-denominated debt.
Air China gained 7.3 percent to 20.66 yuan; China Southern Airlines surged by the daily 10 percent limit to 23.44 yuan.
China Eastern Airlines ended 6.6 percent higher at 13.91 yuan.
Although China's markets remain relatively isolated, investors are reacting to wider gloom over the US economic outlook due to the fallout from so-called subprime mortgages, analysts said.
"Uncertainty over the impact of the US subprime problems will likely affect Chinese bourses, dragging the benchmark index toward 4,800," said Li Wenhui, an analyst at Huatai Securities.
In currency trading, the US dollar dropped below ¥108 to ¥107.55.
This was its lowest rate since June 2005, but it managed to regain some ground to finish the day at ¥107.82.
The euro capped a string of recent records to climb to a high of US$1.4968 before slipping back to US$1.4918.
TAIPEI
Taiwan's benchmark stock index fell to a 14-week low, pulled lower by declines in the shares of food companies and panel makers.
The Weighted Price Index of the Taiwan Stock Exchange dropped 1.9 percent to 8,342.2, its lowest close since Aug. 17.
BANGKOK
Thailand's main stock index rose 1.9 percent to 824.3 on a rebound in blue chip stocks.
JAKARTA
Indonesia's benchmark rose 0.6 percent to 2,584.3 on bargain hunting.
KUALA LUMPUR
Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur Composite Index rose 0.7 percent to 1,353.6 in thin volume.
MANILA
Philippine shares climbed marginally in trade marred by a technical glitch that kept confused investors on the sidelines.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index gained 0.5 percent to end at 3,494.4.
SEOUL
South Korean shares declined for their seventh straight session, with the brokerage sector leading losses.
The Korea Composite Stock Price Index, or Kospi, dropped 1.5 percent to 1,772.9.
The Kospi has now lost 10 percent from Wednesday last week.
SINGAPORE
Singapore shares rose in volatile trade, likely tracking Hong Kong's rise because of the lack of direction from Wall Street. The Straits Times Index advanced 0.4 percent to 3,325.9.
SYDNEY
Holidays in the US and Japan drained interest in Australia's share market before the weekend.
Falls in BHP Billiton and major banks were offset by gains in Westfield Holdings, QBE Insurance, Woodside Petroleum, CSL and Brambles. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index fell just 4.1 points to 6,330.2.
WELLINGTON
New Zealand stocks rose in a session thin and lethargic due to the US Thanksgiving holiday. The benchmark NZX-50 index rose 0.4 percent to 4,071.
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) expects its addressable market to grow by a low single-digit percentage this year, lower than the overall foundry industry’s 15 percent expansion and the global semiconductor industry’s 10 percent growth, the contract chipmaker said yesterday after reporting the worst profit in four-and-a-half years in the fourth quarter of last year. Growth would be fueled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, a moderate recovery in consumer electronics and an increase in semiconductor content, UMC said. “UMC’s goal is to outgrow our addressable market while maintaining our structural profitability,” UMC copresident Jason Wang (王石) told an online earnings
Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密), the sole extreme ultraviolet (EUV) pod supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), is aiming to expand revenue to NT$10 billion (US$304.8 million) this year, as it expects the artificial intelligence (AI) boom to drive demand for wafer delivery pods and pods used in advanced packaging technology. That suggests the firm’s revenue could grow as much as 53 percent this year, after it posted a 28.91 percent increase to NT$6.55 billion last year, exceeding its 20 percent growth target. “We usually set an aggressive target internally to drive further growth. This year, our target is to
The TAIEX ended the Year of the Dragon yesterday up about 30 percent, led by contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電). The benchmark index closed up 225.40 points, or 0.97 percent, at 23,525.41 on the last trading session of the Year of the Dragon before the Lunar New Year holiday ushers in the Year of the Snake. During the Year of the Dragon, the TAIEX rose 5,429.34 points, the highest ever, while the 30 percent increase in the year was the second-highest behind only a 30.84 percent gain in the Year of the Rat from Jan. 25, 2020, to Feb.
Cryptocurrencies gave a lukewarm reception to US President Donald Trump’s first policy moves on digital assets, notching small gains after he commissioned a report on regulation and a crypto reserve. Bitcoin has been broadly steady since Trump took office on Monday and was trading at about US$105,000 yesterday as some of the euphoria around a hoped-for revolution in cryptocurrency regulation ebbed. Smaller cryptocurrency ether has likewise had a fairly steady week, although was up 5 percent in the Asia day to US$3,420. Bitcoin had been one of the most spectacular “Trump trades” in financial markets, gaining 50 percent to break above US$100,000 and
RSS