Fresh fears over Greece’s debt problems returned as Asian markets fell yesterday Friday April 16 with stocks also hit by dealers locking in profits from recent gains.
Measures announced by Beijing on Thursday to avoid property bubbles also hit Shanghai and Hong Kong, with speculation mounting that the government will soon increase interest rates.
Greece on Thursday moved closer to calling for a bailout as the country’s cost of borrowing from private markets continued to rise.
The Greek foreign ministry said the government wants discussions with the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund on the potential e30 billion aid package agreed Sunday.
While stressing it was not actually activating the fall-back loan, Athens asked to confer on a multi-year programme of economic policies.
TOKYO ended the day 1.52 percent lower, giving up 171.61 points, to 11,102.18 due to the yen’s strength.
HONG KONG: SHARES retreated yesterday to two-week lows, as Beijing’s latest move to ease fast-rising real estate prices dragged property stocks lower, but Chinese drugmakers bucked the trend on an upbeat outlook.
The benchmark Hang Seng Index closed down 1.3 percent, or 292.56 points, at 21,865.26, the lowest since April 1.
SINGAPORE: STOCKS closed slightly lower yesterday, with the Straits Times Index dropping 0.3 percent or 9.75 points to 3,007.19 at the close yesterday, paring this week’s gain to 1.2 percent. Four stocks fell for every three that rose in the 30-member gauge.
Bank DBS was 6 cents lower at S$15.48, property developer CapitaLand tumbled 6 cents to S$4.10 and Singapore Airlines was 8 cents up at S$15.52.
SHANGHAI lost 1.11 percent, or 34.66 points, to close at 3,130.30 as property developers were hit by worries about new restrictive mortgage requirements announced overnight by China’s government, dealers said.
Meanwhile, China’s long-awaited stock index futures market began trading yesterday, marking the latest effort by financial authorities to provide more sophisticated investment options on the mainland.
SYDNEY lost 0.34 percent. or 17.2 points, to close at 4,984.7.
Stocks were also hit by investors cashing in recent gains that have seen some markets hit highs not recorded since 2008, due to optimism for the global economy.
Dealers ignored another rise on Wall Street, which had come despite data showing initial jobless claims totalled a seasonally adjusted 484,000 in the week ending April 10, against forecasts of 440,000.
BANGKOK dived 3.25 percent, or 24.74 points, to 736.16 as trading resumed after a three-day break, with buyers staying away on worries about the country’s political crisis.
KUALA LAMPUR: This week, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) continued to consolidate its recent gains. It remained above its psychological support of 1,300 points when it closed at 1,332.77 yesterday.
In other markets:
SEOUL closed 0.54 percent, or 9.42 points, lower at 1,734.49.
TAIPEI finished closed down 0.74 percent, or 60.37 points, at 8,111.57.
MANILA closed 0.41 percent, or 13.30 points, lower at 3,265.54.
JAKARTA fell 0.75 percent, or 21.86 points, to 2,878.67.
MUMBAI fell 0.27 percent, or 48.08 points to 17,591.18.
VIETNAM: the VN Index April 16 continued gaining 0.54 points or 0.1 percent to 522.03 pts. The liquidity increased with the total trading volume of 59.3 million shares for nearly 2.215 trillion dong.
The HNX Index also bounced another 0.74 points or 0.43 percent to 172.6 pts.
The total market trade reached over 48.7 million shares valued at over 1.7 trillion dong.
EUROPE: European shares fell sharply yesterday, led lower by banking stocks, after investment bank Goldman Sachs was charged with fraud by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC charged Goldman in relation to the structuring and marketing of a debt product tied to subprime mortgages.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares fell 1.5 percent to close at 1,095.30 points. Over the week, the index fell 0.6 percent, ending six straight weeks of gains.
London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index fell 1.39 percent to close at 5,743.96 points while in Paris the CAC 40 gave up 1.94 percent to finish at 3,986.63. The Frankfurt DAX lost 1.76 percent to close at 6,180.90 points
AMERICA: Financial shares led the stock market sharply lower Friday after federal regulators filed civil fraud charges against Goldman Sachs over its dealings in subprime mortgages.
The Dow fell 125.91, or 1.1 percent, to 11,018.66. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 19.54, or 1.6 percent, to 1,192.13, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 34.43, or 1.4 percent, to 2,481.26.
About five stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 8.1 billion shares, compared with 6 billion shares Thursday.
With stocks reeling, investors sought safety in Treasury bonds. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.77 percent from 3.84 percent late Thursday.
The dollar mostly rose against other major currencies. Gold fell.
Crude oil fell $2.27 to settle at $83.24 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The Chicago Board Options Exchange’s Volatility Index, which measures how much disruption investors expect in the market, spiked 15 percent to its highest level in a month after the Goldman news came out.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 9.59, or 1.3 percent, to 714.62.
Benchmark Currency Rates USD EUR JPY GBP CHF CAD AUD HKD HKD 7.761 10.4793 0.0842 11.9228 7.3122 7.6627 7.1731 AUD 1.082 1.4609 0.0117 1.6622 1.0194 1.0683 0.1394 CAD 1.0128 1.3676 0.011 1.556 0.9543 0.9361 0.1305 CHF 1.0614 1.4331 0.0115 1.6305 1.0479 0.981 0.1368 GBP 0.6509 0.8789 0.0071 0.6133 0.6427 0.6016 0.0839 JPY 92.173 124.456 141.601 86.8426 91.0054 85.1909 11.8764 EUR 0.7406 0.008 1.1378 0.6978 0.7312 0.6845 0.0954 USD 1.3502 0.0108 1.5362 0.9422 0.9873 0.9242 0.1288 Bloomberg