Markets Live: ASX floating around even 12:14pm: South Korea's Kia Motors is worried about the sharp decline in the value of the yen, which is aiding Japanese rivals, an executive at the affiliate of Hyundai Motor said. The South Korean won has risen 4 per cent versus the yen this year after a 23 per cent jump last year, further reducing the currency advantage that benefited South Korean automakers since the global financial crisis. "The yen is the biggest threat to us, so we are closely monitoring the yen's moves," Lee Soon-nam, Kia's overseas marketing head, told reporters on the sidelines of Seoul Motor Show that kicks off on Thursday. He said Japanese automakers have been giving far more incentives than Kia in the key U.S. market since late last year. 11:58am: Job vacancies in Australia fell sharply in the three months to February as positions in the private sector fell to the lowest in over three years, government data showed on Thursday. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported total job vacancies fell 10.3 per cent to 149,800 in seasonally adjusted terms in the three months to end February. That left vacancies down 18 per cent on the same period of 2011. The government's labour data show employment rose by 83,600 over the three months to February. Vacancies in the private sector slid 10.2 per cent in the quarter to 138,700, the lowest reading since late 2009. That left them down 16 per cent on the year. Job vacancies in the public sector extended their long decline with a drop of 8.3 percent to 11,100, the lowest since 1998. Vacancies were down almost 34 percent on a year earlier as Federal and state governments pushed through spending cuts as part of tough fiscal plans. 11:37am: Victorian pride has been salvaged. 11:22am: The $1.5 trillion superannuation industry has questioned Treasury's estimates that super concessions cost the budget $32 billion in revenue foregone a year, writes BusinessDay's Madeleine Heffernan. ""When you look at the cost saving on the age pension, at the moment it's $7 billion dollars. In the future, by 2037, it's going to be $55 billion,"" Ms Vamos said. 11:10am: The hotel industry is hopeful an increase in occupancy rates in 2012 is a sign consumer confidence is lifting, writes BusinessDay's Georgia Wilkins. Australian Bureau of Statistics data out yesterday showed occupancy rates had lifted to 65.8 per cent on average for the year, up slightly from 65.3 in 2011. Lobby group the Accommodation Association of Australia said it was an indication things were slowly improving for the industry year on year. "It's a positive outcome for the industry and one which has the potential to increase investment confidence levels,"" chief executive Richard Munro said. "[It's] is another small step for the accommodation industry on the road to recovery from the global financial crisis."" The data looks at the fullness of hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 rooms or more. On a quarterly basis, the rates fell slightly - from 65.7 per cent in September to 65.5 per cent in December. "The ABS statistics also reflect a slight lift in the level of consumer confidence, which has been lagging in recent years,"" Mr Munro said. 10:57am: Deutsche Bank AG has lost a bid to end a shareholder lawsuit accusing it of misrepresenting the risk of packaging home loans into complex financial products. US District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan denied a motion by the German bank to dismiss the lawsuit, which seeks class action status on behalf of investors accusing Deutsche Bank of scheming to maximize profits at their expense. "Plaintiffs have certainly set forth sufficient plausible allegations to support a claim for a fraudulent scheme against Deutsche Bank," Forrest wrote. Duncan King, a Deutsche Bank spokesman, said the bank will continue to defend vigorously against the lawsuit. The 2011 lawsuit accused Deutsche Bank of issuing false and misleading statements about its health preceding and during the global financial crisis. 10:47am: Fruit and vegie prices fell in March, but the savings were eaten up by increases in the cost of fuel, alcohol and tobacco. 10:26am: For those of you wondering why Nufarm has plunged, yesterday, after the share market closed, Nufarm released its financial results for the first six months of its fiscal year. 10:15am: Australia is scrapping the panel that sets interbank lending rates after the proposal of new international guidelines and an exodus of the banks that set the rate in the wake of the Libor rate-rigging scandal. The Australian Financial Markets Association (AFMA), which administers Australia's bank bill swap (BBSW) reference rate, said it would bypass the panel and derive the rates directly from brokers and electronic markets. "An advantage of this enhancement is that it will remove the need for a BBSW Panel, which will eliminate the associated compliance and ancillary costs which otherwise exist for panellist banks," the AFMA said in a statement issued late on Wednesday. This change is subject to technical requirements being satisfied, but it is hoped that this solution will be achievable within a period of months. Banks around the world are reviewing their involvement in interest-rate setting panels after regulators dished out billions of dollars in fines to banks, including Barclays , UBS and Royal Bank of Scotland, for manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate, known as Libor. 10:08am: Lehman Brothers Holdings said overnight it plans to distribute about $US14.2 billion ($13.61 billion) to creditors early next month, as the company winds down following its emergence from bankruptcy protection last year. The distribution, to be made April 4, will be Lehman's third since it emerged from Chapter 11 protection on March 6, 2012. Lehman said the payout will increase total distributions to about $US47.2 billion, with two-thirds going to third parties. The company has said it hopes to distribute more than $US65 billion, on average about 21 cents on the dollar for allowed claims. April's payout will include $US9.4 billion to third-party creditors and affiliates, $US4.4 billion to other Lehman debtors and affiliates, and $US370 million for claims deemed valid since the second distribution on Oct. 1. 9:58am: Construction giant Leighton will offload 70 per cent its phone and internet assets to a Canadian pension fund. The deal between Leighton and the Ontario Teachers" Pension Plan covers the Nextgen Networks, Metronode and Infoplex businesses, which Leighton valued at $885 million. 9:50am: Cyprus reopens its banks on Thursday while limiting withdrawals, banning cheques and curbing the use of Cypriot credit cards abroad, among measures imposed to avert a bank run after it agreed a tough rescue deal with international lenders. The Central Bank said banks would open their doors at midday (1000 GMT) on Thursday after nearly two weeks when Cypriots could only get cash through limited ATM withdrawals. A central bank official said Cypriots would be allowed to withdraw no more than 300 euros ($367) a day. Yiangos Demetriou, head of internal audit at the Central Bank, said on state television that the controls would allow unlimited use of credit cards within Cyprus, but set a limit of 5,000 euros per month abroad. He said the measures would last four days but could be reviewed. 9:44am: Looking overseas, US stocks rebounded from early declines to close little changed, but investors were still worried about the chance of a run on Cypriot banks and its possible implications for other euro-zone lenders. The S&P 500 fell 0.8 per cent in morning trading, but in line with recent market behavior, investors took the drop as a buying opportunity. By the close, late buying had helped the S&P 500 cut most of the session's losses to end down less than a point. The benchmark S&P 500 has traded within 10 points of its record closing high for 13 consecutive days, without once moving above the 1,565.15 level set October 9, 2007. It is on track to post its fifth consecutive month of gains. "Any time you have a run like we've had, market participants will look for a reason to take profits," said Bruce Zaro, chief technical strategist at Delta Global Asset Management in Boston. But pauses in this uptrend have been short and shallow. Everybody seems to want to buy in the slightest pullback.