Asian stocks ended the week lower on Friday hurt by a spate of negative economic reports from the United States and Europe and yen hovered near its highest since Japan’s currency intervention last week.
At 3.45 p.m. (I.S.T) Japan’s Nikkei plummeted 1%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.3%, while Australia’s ASX slipped 0.6%. India’s Sensex was up 0.9%. Chinese markets remained shut for holiday.
Bad economic news on Thursday swayed the global markets and weighed on Asian stocks. Worse-than-expected U.S. jobless claims, declining Irish gross domestic product, dismal euro zone purchasing managers' index dragged down the benchmark indexes.
The Japanese yen, which has risen more than 1% since the currency intervention on September 15th, strengthened against most of its major counterparts on renewed fears about a deteriorating global economic recovery and rising political tensions between China and Japan.
In commodities market, crude oil prices were trading at $75.34 a barrel, while gold futures rose to a record high of $1,300 an ounce, proving to be a safe-haven against a volatile yen and a weakening dollar.
In India, prime minister Manmohan Singh lifted the cap on foreign investment in bonds - for the first time in one and a half years and is seeking cash to improve the nation’s infrastructure and build power plants, to cater to the growing population.
Stocks on The Move
Broad-based declines hurt the markets in Tokyo with a strong yen once again proving its resilience and eating into profits. Among the large exporters of automobiles Honda Motor and Nissan Motor dropped 0.8% and 0.6% respectively.
Consumer electronic equipment maker Sony fell 0.1%, while its peer Panasonic lost more than 1.1%. Shares of camera maker Canon slumped 1.7% and Ricoh fell further, dropping 2.6%.
Nippon Electric Glass lost 1.6% after cutting its earnings forecast for its fiscal first half. Peer Asahi Glass also shed 3%.
Due to the tension between China and Japan over disputed islets in the East China Sea, there have been speculations that rare earth exports to Japan from China have been blocked. Glass manufacturers sometimes use abrasive that contains a rare earth material called cerium.
Financial stocks in Hong Kong also traded weak with HSBC Holdings and Standard Chartered falling 0.8% and 0.6%. Bank of China was off 0.5%, while Bank of Communications closed flat.
China Petroleum and Chemicals tumbled 0.6% but CNOOC and PetroChina rose 0.6% and 1.2% respectively.
In Australia, index heavyweights BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto slid more than 0.5% each, while the major banks underperformed the benchmark index. National Australia Bank slumped 1.5%, Westpac Banking lost 1% and Commonwealth Bank of Australia was off 1.1%, at close.
Biggest gainers on the Indian index were financial stocks like Federal Bank, whose shares rose 4.8% and Central Bank jumped 4.6%.
Realty stocks added gains on the benchmark index with Sobha Developers gaining 6.8%, DLF rose 5.5%, while Unitech, Ansal Properties and Parsvnath Developers advanced more than 2% each.
