Asian markets tumbled yesterday Tuesday October 4 after Wall Street slumped to its lowest level for more than a year as fears grow that Greece will default and the eurozone debt crisis will spread.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 Index closed 89.36 points lower at 8,456.12, after rebounding from the midday low of 8,359.24.
Finance Minister Jun Azumi complained that the stock prices were not reflective of the fundamentals of Japan Inc.
“Tokyo share prices are too cheap considering the strengths of Japan’s listed companies,” he told a regular press conference shortly after the opening bell.
Shares in Seoul ended 3.59 per cent lower. The Kospi closed down 63.46 points at 1,706.19, off its lows thanks to dip-buying.
“The South Korean market was hit stronger by the Greek issue as it was closed on Monday,” said Won Sang-Phil, an analyst at Tong Yang Securities.
However, the Seoul market could rebound any time if European uncertainties are dissipated because the US economy is showing signs of recovery on better-than-expected manufacturing data, he said.
Shares lost ground across the board, led by large-cap exporters and banks.
Sydney shares closed down 0.64 per cent. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 briefly entered positive territory during see-sawing trade but ended down 24.9 points at 3,872.1.
“Unfortunately for investors the start of a new quarter has not heralded a change in sentiment, with the market continuing to grapple with Greece’s debt predicament and concerns of a broadening global slowdown,” IG Markets analyst Cameron Peacock said.
“The fact is that Australia is a very thin market and it always has been this way,” said Bell Potter senior adviser Stuart Smith. “We are spectating, like sitting on the dock of the bay, watching the tide come in and go out.”
HONG KONG: Shares tumbled 3.40 per cent yesterday, hitting a two-and-a-half-year low as the eurozone debt crisis strains markets worldwide with fears of another devastating downturn.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index dived 571.88 points to 16,250.27 – its fourth straight loss and its lowest close since early April 2009.
SINGAPORE: Stocks fell to a two-year low yesterday. The Straits Times Index closed down 90.38 points, or 3.45 per cent, to 2,531.02, its biggest loss in more than six weeks.
DBS Group fell 5.97 per cent to RM10.87 and Keppel Land shed 6.50 per cent to RM2.30.
The sell-off, which picked up pace in late trading, was led by banking stocks as the prospect of a Greek default raised concerns about another global financial crisis.
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia finished lower yesterday as the market failed to sustain its upward momentum due to continuous selling pressure, dealers said.
The FBM KLCI finished 6.14 points, or 0.4 per, cent lower at 1,361.38, after hovering between 1,356.77 and 1,375.02 throughout the day.
Many investors were nibbling on cheap stocks when the benchmark index was hovering around 1,372.63 mid-afternoon but interest tapered off thereafter as most indices slipped into the negative territory in line with the trend in regional markets.
The Finance Index lost 46.36 points to 12,400.85, Plantation Index dropped 48.26 points to 6,813.61 and the Industrial Index declined 19.96 points to 2,487.94.
The FBM Emas Index erased 41.721 points to 9,214.56, FBM70 Index fell 65.76 points to 9,759.96, FBMT100 dipped 45.11 points to 9,068.6 and the FBM Ace shed 0.61 of a point to 3,563.59.
In other markets:
*Mumbai fell 1.77 per cent or 286.59 points to 15,864.86 .
* Bangkok fell 1.59 per cent or 13.86 points to 855.45.
* Manila fell 0.93 per cent, or 35.91 points, to 3,829.92.
* Jakarta shares plunged 79.26 points or 2.37 pe rcent to 3,269.45.
*- Taipei rose 0.48 per cent, or 33.90 points, to 7,047.87.
VIETNAM: The VN Index of Hochiminh Stock Exchange (STC) fell for fifth consecutive trading session, losing nearly four points to 418.18 points.
The HNX Index gained o.1 points be the end of the trading session to 70.46 points, ending the chain of three consecutive falls.
EUROPE: European shares took another hit yesterday on fears Franco-Belgian bank Dexia may need to be rescued due to its exposure to Greek debt in what investors see as evidence of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis spreading to the banking sector.
“What you are now beginning to see is they (investors) are now picking out the banks. Dexia is the weakest,” said Justin Urquhart Stewart, director at Seven Investment Management.
In midday deals, London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index was down 2.33 pe rcent at 4,957.14 points, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 tumbled 3.20 per cent to 5,205.85 and in Paris the CAC 40 slid 2.42 per cent to 2,856.06. Madrid lost 2.26 per cent and Milan 2.31 per cent.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 3.3 per cent at 882.20 points at 1207 GMT, while the STOXX Europe 600 Banking Index fell 4.8 per cent.
AMERICA: A late afternoon surge capped another wild day on Wall Street Tuesday and prevented the S&P 500 stock index from entering a bear market. Stocks jumped on reports that European officials were working to prop up the region’s struggling banks.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down nearly 200 points with 40 minutes of trading left. It closed up 153.
Indexes opened sharply lower as traders worried that the government of Greece could be closer to defaulting on its debt. They pared their losses at midday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told a Congressional panel that the central bank could take more steps to stimulate the economy, then slumped again in the afternoon.
The Dow closed with a gain of 153.41, or 1.4 percent, to 10,808.71.
The Standard and Poor’s 500 rose 24.72, or 2.2 percent, to 1,123.95. It had been as low as 1,074, which was 21 percent below its April 29 peak of 1,363. Had the index closed with a decline that size it would have met the typical definition of a bear market.
The technology-focused Nasdaq composite rose 68.99 points, or 3 percent, to 2,404.82.
Smaller stocks rose much more than the overall market. The Russell 2000 index of small companies gained 39.15, or 6.4 percent, to 648.64.
Concerns about Europe’s debt crisis have been at the root of much of the market’s recent volatility. Investors are worried that Greece’s government will be unable to make payments on its loans, triggering a default. That would lead to sharp losses for banks and other institutions that hold Greek debt, and possibly cause banks to stop lending to each other.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.82 percent from 1.78 percent late Monday. It briefly went as low as 1.72 percent around 10 a.m., near its record low of 1.71 percent reached Sept. 22. Bond yields fall when their prices rise.
Analysts said Europe’s debt problems overshadowed signs that the U.S. economy continues to grow, although slowly. Those signs include reports Monday that auto sales jumped 10 percent in September and one measure of U.S. manufacturing increased.
“Collectively, the data here in the U.S. hasn’t been that bad, but investors are looking at Europe and saying, ‘I don’t care what the U.S. fundamentals are when we’ve got much bigger problems overseas that may eventually wash onto our shores,’” said Phil Orlando, chief stock strategist at Federated Investors.
The S&P index has fallen every month since April because of two concerns: the strength of the U.S. economy and the debt crisis in Europe.
In corporate news, Bank of America Corp. jumped 4.2 percent to $5.76. It was down 5 percent to $5.24 before the late market surge as investors continued to be troubled by its exposure to soured mortgages securities and a several-day outage of its website. The company’s stock lost 9 percent Monday to $5.53, a level not seen since 2009.
Apple Inc. lost 0.5 percent to $372.50. It had been down 5 percent before the late rally after the company unveiled a faster iPhone that fell short of the bigger upgrade that some analysts had predicted.
Two stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was heavy at 6.9 billion shares.
Benchmark Currency Rates USD EUR JPY GBP CHF CAD AUD HKD HKD 7.7837 10.333 0.1015 12.002 8.4523 7.3671 7.3933 - AUD 1.0528 1.3977 0.0137 1.6235 1.1433 0.9965 - 0.1353 CAD 1.0566 1.4026 0.0138 1.6292 1.1473 - 1.0036 0.1357 CHF 0.9209 1.2225 0.0120 1.4200 - 0.8716 0.8747 0.1183 GBP 0.6485 0.8609 0.0085 - 0.7042 0.6138 0.6160 0.0833 JPY 76.686 101.80 - 118.253 83.274 72.582 72.839 9.8522 EUR 0.7533 - 0.0098 1.1616 0.8180 0.7129 0.7155 0.0968 USD - 1.3276 0.0130 1.5420 1.0859 0.9465 0.9498 0.1285 Bloomberg