por admin » Lun Nov 15, 2010 11:45 pm
Las acciones a la baja en el Asia, el alza de los intereses en Korea pone peso en los stocks markets.
Siguen las preocupaciones de la deuda soberana en Europa.
Asian Shares Mostly Lower; Seoul Falls After BOK Move
By SHRI NAVARATNAM
SINGAPORE—Asian stock markets were mostly down Tuesday, with the market in Seoul weighed by a rate increase by the Bank of Korea.
Japan's Nikkei Stock Average was down 0.2%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was flat, South Korea's Kospi Composite was off 0.5% and New Zealand's NZX-50 was down 0.2%.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 12 points in screen trade.
Sentiment in Asia was muted due to fresh concerns about Europe's sovereign debt problems.
Ireland's towering debt burden has spooked markets in recent weeks with investors speculating that Dublin might soon request a European Union lifeline, although Irish officials have denied such talk.
RBS Morgans investment adviser Chris MacDonald in Sydney expects concern about European sovereign debt to dissipate should Ireland decide to accept an EU bailout.
"There are growing expectations that we will see the EU bail out Ireland this week," he said. "The last thing Europe needs is negative sentiment. A bailout of Ireland should see a revaluation of the euro versus the U.S. dollar and that should see a mild return to risk plays including equities, commodities and the Australian dollar."
In Seoul, the market was weighed by the Bank of Korea's decision to raise its key policy rate by .25 percentage point to 2.50%, as the central bank resumed its monetary tightening campaign to tame inflationary pressures.
The market had been almost evenly divided over whether the central bank would raise its policy rate or keep it unchanged, as it grapples with both growing uncertainty over the global economy's recovery and rising domestic inflation expectations.
Samsung Electronics was off 0.6%, LG Electronics was off 0.5% and LG Display lost 0.7%.
Hyundai Engineering & Construction slumped 13%. Hyundai Group was selected as the preferred bidder for a stake in the company, a person at a creditor bank with direct knowledge of the deal told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
"Investors worry that Hyundai Group, which is short of capital for the bid, will not be helpful for the builder's future growth," said Cho Yoon-ho at Daishin Securities.
Hyundai Group and Hyundai Motor Group had submitted separate bids for the 34.88% stake in Hyundai Engineering being sold by a group of creditors who have held a stake in the construction company since 2001.
Hyundai Motor was up 2.1%.
Hana Financial Group rose 2.7% after The Wall Street Journal reported that Lone Star Funds has agreed to sell its 51% stake in Korea Exchange Bank to Hana.
While exact terms of the deal weren't yet known, the report cited a person close to the transaction as saying that Hana would likely pay a premium of 10% or more to the current market value. The surprise deal thwarts a rival attempt by Australia's ANZ Bank to purchase the stake.
Banking stocks were up in Australia as they tracked their U.S. peers higher.
ANZ Bank shares rose 1.0% on the Lone Star news, partly on relief the bank won't need to go to market to raise capital to fund the acquisition. Westpac Bank advanced 0.8%.
BHP Billiton rose 0.3%, extending its gain after abandoning its US$39 billion bid for Canadian fertilizer company Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. and reinstated a previously-suspended US$4.2 billion share buy back plan.
In Tokyo, the U.S. dollar's gains against the yen to above the 83 yen level for the first time since early October prompted some buying in exporters' stocks. However, most investors were cautious amid the backdrop of concerns over Europe's debt woes.
Sony was up 0.8%, Nintendo rose 0.7% and Mazda Motor added 1.4%, while Sharp was flat and Toyota Motor lost 0.3%.
New Zealand shares were down modestly in light trade. Blue-chip stocks were mixed with Fletcher Building up 0.4%, while Telecom lost 0.5%.
Infratil was down 0.5%, in line with the broader market despite reporting sharply higher first-half profits due to an improved performance from its Australian operations and upgrading its fiscal year operating earnings.
In foreign exchange markets, the euro recovered a little after falling sharply against the dollar Monday as investors continued to fret about the debt problems bedevilling the euro-zone periphery.
"The euro is in a slump that feels like it will be around for a while," said Greg Gibbs, currency strategist at RBS in Sydney. "Periphery spreads have started to narrow since Friday, but the fear around Europe has been raised to alarming levels, and some easing of tension now is not enough to avert a further significant retracement in the euro gains since mid-year," he said.
The single currency was at $1.3591 against the greenback, from $1.3587 late in New York on Monday, and at 112.94 yen, from 113 yen. The dollar was fetching 83.12 yen, from 83.17 yen.
Lead December Japanese government bond futures were down 0.43 at 141.59 points, on Monday's sharp fall in U.S. Treasurys and the Nikkei's losses. Ten-year cash bond yields were up 0.045 percentage point at 1.090%.
Spot gold was at $1,361.50 per troy ounce, up $1.00 from the New York close on Monday. December Nymex crude oil futures were down 39 cents at $84.47 per barrel.