Major stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region closed in the negative territory on Monday. Australian market gained, tracking the positive lead from Wall Street, but New Zealand market closed flat on the back of disappointing earnings reported by Rakon and Infartil. While the lingering worries about the U.S. credit market pulled Japanese stocks down, Chinese shares were led down by banks after the regulator required domestic banks to curb their loan growth for the rest of the year. Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 112.05 points or 0.7% to end at 15,042.56, after opening on a strong note. The previous low for the index was 15,126.63 in 2007 recorded on November 13. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues closed down 15.06 points or 1.0% at 1,456.61. The dollar fell against the yen on selling by Japanese exporters. At 5:10 p.m. local time, the dollar was quoted at 110.67-110.69 yen, up 0.59 yen from Friday's 5:00 p.m. quotes of 110.08-110.11 yen. On the economic front, a report by the Japan Department Stores Association showed that department store sales fell 1.4% on year to 626.0 billion yen in October. Major decliners included Nippon Steel 4.6%, Mitsui OSK Lines 5.7% and Komatsu 6.3%. JFE Holdings shed 4.4% and Sumitomo Metal Industries fell 4.1%. Mitsui lost 6.5% and Marubeni plunged 6.1%. Mitsubishi declined 4.5%. Banking stocks were mixed, with Mizuho Financial Group falling 1.0%, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group rising 1.4%, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group adding 0.3% and Resona Holdings plunging 3.5%. Sony Financial Holdings gained 2.5% after reporting strong earnings on Friday. Among export-oriented stocks, Olympus rose 2.3% and Tokyo Electron climbed 0.5%. In the auto sector, Honda edged up 0.3%, but Mazda and Nissan slipped 0.4%. While Suzuki lost 0.3%, Toyota advanced 0.2%. Losers among tech stocks included Advantest 0.2%, Fanuc 1.2%, Minebea plunged 2.2%, NEC 0.6%, Oki Electrical Industrial 4.8% and Sony 0.6%. Among gainers, Fujitsu jumped 2.0%, Kyocera edged up 0.1% and Matsushita Electrical Industrial surged 2.6%. China's Shanghai Composite Index closed down 46.46 points or 0.87% at 5,269.82. China Railway Engineering is scheduled to kick off institutional subscriptions on Tuesday and retail subscriptions on Wednesday for a Shanghai offering of up to 4.675 billion A-shares. PetroChina joined the Shanghai Composite Index with the top weighting of 23%. The country's largest oil producer ended the session down 0.75 yuan. China's second-largest oil company, China Petroleum & Chemical or Sinopec shed 0.52 yuan. Banks weakened following reports that the regulator has required domestic banks to curb their loan growth for the rest of the year. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China lost 0.12 yuan and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank fell 2.06 yuan. China Eastern Airlines rose 0.14 yuan after it entered into an agreement to sell its 98.79% stake in China Eastern Air Investment for about 461.9 million yuan. China United Telecommunications surged 0.49 yuan after its wholly owned unit China Unicom entered into an agreement to acquire various Guizhou telecom assets held by its parent company for 880 million yuan. ZTE advanced 2.08 yuan. South Korea's KOSPI index closed down 32.73 points or 1.7% at 1,893.47, the lowest closing level since September 18. The local currency closed at 919.0 won to a U.S. dollar, down 1.60 won from Friday's close of 917.4 won. Among high-tech stocks, Samsung Electronics lost 2.9% and LG Electronics tumbled 5.4%. Hynix Semiconductor plummeted 3.2% and LG Philips LCD tumbled 3.8%. Banks extended their losses. Kookmin Bank plunged 3.4% and Shinhan Financial and Woori Finance slumped 3.0% each. KT&G jumped 3.2% supported by the company's solid sales performance and a share buyback program. Mirae Asset Securities soared 6.0%. Automaker Hyundai Motor fell 1.6% and steel major POSCO lost 1.9%. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index closed up 73.3 points or 1.1% at 6,535.2 and the broader-based All Ordinaries index rose 75.2 points or 1.2% to end at 6,601.3. The S&P/ASX December futures contract rose 47 points to 6,550. The Australian dollar closed stronger at US$0.8936-0.8941, up from Friday's close of US$0.8856-0.8859. On the economic front, merchandise imports in Australia climbed in the month of October to A$17.4 billion, according to data released by the Australia Bureau of Statistics. Major banks rebounded, with National Australia Bank rising 1.2%, Australia & New Zealand Banking Group gaining 1.3% and Commonwealth Bank advancing 1.0%. Westpac Banking edged up 0.1%. Rio Tinto surged 3.7%, while index leader BHP gained 1.1% after it said that its 50% owned and operated Stybarrow oil project offshore northwest Australia has started commercial production. Woodside Petroleum, which owns the other half of the project, jumped 3.5%. Gold miner New Crest Mining surged 3.4% and Lihir Gold advanced 1.1%. Brambles rose 1.5% on continued speculation that Asciano is considering a bid for the company. Toll Holdings is also rumored to be interested in Brambles. Australia's second-largest steel group, OneSteel, plummeted 4.1% despite forecasting EBITDA of A$710-780 million for the year to June 2008. Telstra lost 1.1% after going ex-dividend. In the retail sector, Woolworths gained 1.3% and Wesfarmers advanced 2.0%. Media company Fairfax Media rose 0.6% and Publishing and Broadcasting added 0.5%. New Zealand's NZX-50 index closed up 0.49 points or 0.01% at 4,114.67. The kiwi closed at US$0.7609, up from Friday's close of US$0.7543. Top stocks Telecom and Contact Energy rose 0.7% each, while Fletcher Building gained 0.6%. Contact announced a new geothermal plant in Taupo. Rakon tumbled 12% after the company said foreign exchange conditions might make it difficult to achieve its target for full year EBITDA. Infratil lost 1.0% despite reporting a 49% fall in first-half net profit. Auckland Airport declined 1.0%, while another takeover target Sky City dropped 0.4%. Export-oriented Fisher & Paykel Healthcare edged up 0.3%. In the retail space, Hellaby Holdings advanced 1.5%, but Hallenstein Glasson plunged 2.0%. Jeweler Michael Hill closed unchanged. Pumpkin Patch and The Warehouse Group lost 0.4% each. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index closed down 154.26 points or 0.6% at 27,460.17. Taiwan's weighted index Taiex closed down 84.11 points or 0.96% at 8,680.71. Singapore's Straits Times Index closed down 29.24 points or 0.9% at 3,411.72. Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur Composite Index closed down 6.73 points or 0.5% at 1,379.91.
November 19, 2007 5:32 AM