Asia Pacific shares commenced the trading with back footing, on tracking losses on Wall Street overnight and lingering fears of tougher sanctions on Russia after US President Barack Obama cautioned against complacency on Russian moves in Ukraine.
US President Barack Obama, in a speech in Brussels, on Wednesday, 26 March 2014, called for further economic sanctions against Russia over its annexation of Crimea. Obama, speaking in Brussels, warned of consequences of complacency in Ukraine and said Russia's actions must be met with condemnation.
The US and European Union have imposed financial sanctions on Russian and Ukrainian officials as well associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin, leaving open the threat of broader sanctions targeting the Russian economy, including its energy and financial sectors.
Meanwhile, Sentiment in the region was broadly subdued amidst uncertainty about the health of the world's second biggest economy and concerns about liquidity availability there after People's Bank of China soaked up a net 98 billion yuan from the market, almost doubling the 48 billion yuan drain last week and 40 billion yuan removal prior to last week
Among Asian bourses, Australian stock market declined today, eroding most of Wednesday's gains, on the back of profit taking pressure across the board, with bullion, mining, retailer and consumer goods stocks led declines. Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX200 and the broader All Ordinaries both finished 0.5% down at 5350.10 and 5359.70, respectively.
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Shares of materials companies declined the most in Sydney on tracking drop in base metal prices. Base metal prices fell on the London Metal Exchange on Wednesday, with metals down between 1.0-1.8%.Index heavyweight BHP Billiton eased 0.6% to $35.98, while rival Rio Tinto dipped 0.8% to $63.18. Junior iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group lost 1.3% to A$5.26.
Gold miner stocks extended its recent losses. The Comex futures price fell by US$8 an ounce to US$1,303.40 per ounce. Copper and gold producer PanAust lost 4.4% to A$1.53, while Australia's biggest gold producer Newcrest was down 3.3% to A$9.68. Perseus Mining erased 4.6% to A$0.415 and Kingsgate Consolidated 2% to A$0.99.
Lynas Corp (LYC) rose 25% to A$0.225 after the company today forecasted stronger 3Q sales. The rare earths miner announced its commercial production and sales of rare earth oxide products at its Malaysian plant would hit a record high in the March quarter.
Australian dollar appreciated further against greenback and other major currencies on Thursday, in the wake of Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens' comments on his upbeat outlook for the local economy in a speech in Hong Kong on Wednesday. Around late afternoon, the Australian dollar was quoted at 0.9237 against US dollar, 0.6712 against the euro, 94.35 against the Japanese yen, 0.5575 against the British pound, 0.8188 against Swiss franc, 1.0246 against Canadian dollar, and 7.1662 against the HK dollar.
In New Zealand, shares in the NZ market closed higher today, as investors sought exposure to New Zealand's economic growth, fuelled by a record high trade surplus for February and strong business confidence. Port of Tauranga, Fletcher Building and Steel & Tube paced the day's gainers.
The benchmark NZX 50 Index rose 1.645 points, or 0.03%, to 5126.533. Within the index, 22 stocks rose, 20 fell and eight were unchanged.
Xero fell 5.6% to $41, a three week low. The cloud-based accounting software company has climbed 270% in the past 12 months. A2 Corp, which has gained 57% in the past year, slid 1.1% to 92 cents.
Wynyard Group slipped 1.6% to $3.00. The security software firm has gained more than 170% since it listed last July.
Methven fell 4.7% to $1.23 after the tap-maker and distributor cut its full-year earnings guidance for a second time, saying soft trading conditions it flagged in January have continued for longer than expected.
In Japan, Japanese share market finished modest higher in volatile trade, as bargain buying spurred after sharp drop in early trading and as yen weakening against the greenback. Meanwhile, massive share buyback plan from Toyota Motor also helped lift the index from early losses. The benchmark Nikkei-225 index closed 1% higher at 14622.89, after falling as much as 1.7% in early trading.
Tokyo shares started the day with back footing, on tracking losses on Wall Street overnight and the U.S. dollar's fall to the 101 yen range. Meanwhile, selling activities intensified, with the Nikkei's loss widening to as much as 250 points at one stage in the morning on mounting fears of tougher sanctions on Russia, combined with uncertainty about the health of the world's second biggest economy. But stocks turned higher in the afternoon as the dollar later changed course and recovered to the 102 yen range, alleviating investors' concerns over the earnings outlook for export-linked firms. Many high-tech shares ended higher after erasing early losses.
Export related stocks advanced the most in Tokyo after yen closed above 102 level against the US dollar. The dollar fell as low as Y101.67 in the morning session before rebounding to Y102.20 as of the close of Tokyo trading. A weaker yen affords exporters more latitude in making prices more affordable on the goods they sell overseas. Sony ended 10 yen, or 0.5%, higher at 1,881 yen while Sharp went up 11 yen, or 3.7%, to 306 yen. Cargo transport company Maruwn gained 2 yen, or 0.9%, to 234 yen after raising its net profit projection for the current fiscal year.
Utilities shares closed sharp higher. Kansai Electric Power Co. advanced 4.8% to 1,079 yen in Tokyo, while Tohoku Electric Power Co. added 4.1% to 1,063 yen.
Toyota Motor Corp gained 2% to 5731 yen after the company said it will buy back as much as 1.89% of its shares (up to 60 million shares) for 360 billion yen between June and March 2015. The auto maker will also transfer a portion of its own shares that it holds as treasury stock to a newly launched trust to help finance a foundation promoting "motorization" in emerging markets and cutting-edge automotive technology.
Seven & i Holdings surged 189 yen, or 5.1%, to 3,884 yen following news that its group company Seven-Eleven Japan will form an alliance with West Japan Railway to open about 500 convenience stores inside train stations.
Nissan Motor Co declined 0.6% to 894 yen after the Japanese automaker announced plans to recall nearly a million of its vehicles in North America over a defect that could cause the front passenger airbag not to deploy in an accident.
In China, Mainland China stock market finished weaker for second consecutive day, on intensifying concerns about liquidity availability in the market after central bank soaked up a net 98 billion yuan of liquidity.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks both A and B shares, declined 0.83% from prior day closure to finish at 2046.59, while the Shenzhen Composite Index, which covers the smaller mainland shares, slid 2% to 1067.32.
Risk-off selling speedup in Mainland China on growing concerns in the market about liquidity availability after People's Bank of China soaked up a net 98 billion yuan from the market, almost doubling the 48 billion yuan drain last week and 40 billion yuan removal prior to last week
In Hong Kong, equities on the HK market fell down, dragging the benchmark Hang Seng Index lower by 0.24% to 21834.45, on tracking losses on Wall Street overnight and lingering fears of tougher sanctions on Russia, combined with uncertainty about the health of the world's second biggest economy.
Among the HK 50 blue chips, 29 rose and 17 fell, with four stocks remaining steady. BOC Hong Kong Holdings declined 6.2% to HK$21.95, contributing 14-points losses to the benchmark Index and becoming the worst-performing blue chip, on a slew of downgrades following its dividend reduction.
CITIC Pacific advanced 13% to HK$14.30, contributing 8-points gains to the benchmark Index and becoming the best-performing blue chip, after the company said it's in talks to acquire its parent company. Citic Pacific stated plans to sell about $4 billion of shares to restore its public float after absorbing assets from state-owned parent Citic Group Corp.
Software developers shares listed in HK bourse were sharp down. Tencent plunged 5.9% to HK$521.5 after it acquired Korean online and mobile games developer and publisher CJ Games. Kingsoft (03888) tumbled 6.5% to HK$28.9. IGG (08002) dived 14.3% to HK$6.84. Innovationpay (08083) plummeted 11% to HK$0.56.
Macau gaming players were lower. Galaxy and Sands declined 5.4% and 4% to HK$64.9 and HK$56.55 respectively.
In Singapore, Singapore stocks extended their recent gains amid a cautious movement in Asian stocks as a break above 3100 levels extended for the benchmark Strait Times index. Supportive economic data this week in the form of a surge in Singapore's industrial production boosted the sentiments. The Strait Times index closed up 19.10 points or 0.61% on the day to close at 3162.50 points.
Singapore's industrial production recorded a double-digit growth in February, data from the Economic Development Board showed Wednesday. Industrial production expanded 12.8% year-on-year in February. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output increased 11.2% versus 4.2% rise in the previous month. Driven by pharmaceutical output, biomedical production surged 19.3%.
The ST index saw 2243 million shares change hands with the value of trades placed at 1273 million- another heavy session in terms of volumes. The winners beat losers by 219 to 162. Banks were mostly higher apart from DBS, which dropped 0.62%. OCBC and UOB gained 0.63% and 0.43% respectively. Shares of Noble Group surged another 4.3% today, extending its recent upturn. Olam international gained 0.45% on the day.
In India, Indian stock market closed modest higher, boosted by data showing that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) made substantial purchases of Indian stocks on Wednesday, 26 March 2014. Stocks turned volatile during the latter part of the trading session as traders rolled over positions in the futures & options (F&O) segment from the near-month March 2014 series to April 2014 series. The near-month March 2014 F&O contracts expired today, 27 March 2014. The Sensex garnered 119.07 points or 0.54%, off close to 95 points from the day's high and up about 120 points from the day's low.
Reliance Industries (RIL) gained in volatile trade after the company after market hours on Wednesday, 26 March 2014, announced that the Ministry of Energy (MOE) of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar has selected RIL for two offshore blocks in Myanmar Offshore Block Bidding Round - 2013.
PSU bank stocks gained across the board on renewed buying. Canara Bank (up 2.54%), IDBI Bank (up 3.25%), Punjab National Bank (up 3.38%), Bank of Baroda (up 3.39%), Bank of India (up 1.51%) and Union Bank of India (up 2.18%) gained.
State Bank of India jumped 4.46% to Rs 1,847 after a foreign brokerage upgraded the stock to buy from neutral rating. The brokerage also revised its price target on the State Bank of India (SBI) stock to Rs 2,080 from Rs 1,440 per share, citing the bank will benefit from economic recovery and lower slippages. The brokerage expects slippage ratio of the bank to decline to 3.2% in the fiscal year ending March 2016 (FY 2016) and stress loans to fall from 9.1% in Q3 December 2013 to 8.4% by FY 2016.
Dena Bank rose 1.48% to Rs 58.20 after the bank said it has allotted total shares aggregating about 6.90 crore shares at Rs 52.91 per share to Life Insurance Corporation of India and GIC of India on preferential allotment basis. The announcement was made during trading hours today, 27 March 2014.
Elsewhere in the Asia Pacific region, Taiwan's Taiex index jumped 0.48%. South Korea's KOSPI index was up 0.7%. Singapore's Straits Times index added 0.61%. Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index fell 0.1%. New Zealand's NZX50 rose 0.03%. Malaysia's KLSE Composite added 0.42%.
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