Ref : Bloomberg
"March 28 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks slid the most in a week and oil fell as reports showed corporate earnings are worsening in China and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said U.S. unemployment remains too high. The yen strengthened.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slid 0.5 percent as of 1:47 p.m. in Tokyo, after a 1.7 percent advance yesterday. Japan’s Topix Index dropped 1 percent as 78 percent of its companies traded without the right to receive a dividend. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures were little changed and the yen rose 0.3 percent to 82.93 per dollar. Oil fell 0.6 percent in New York and copper lost 0.7 percent.
Societe Generale SA cut its earnings growth forecast for the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index this year to zero from 5 percent, while Gome Electrical Appliances Holding Ltd. and Jiangxi Copper Company Ltd. reported falling profits. The recovery in the U.S. economy isn’t assured and policy makers don’t rule out taking further steps to boost growth, Bernanke told ABC News yesterday. Data later today may show U.S. factories received more orders for durable goods in February.
“Investors had expected earnings to be weak but they are still below expectations,” said Larry Wan, the Beijing-based head of investment at Union Life Asset Management Co., which manages the equivalent of $2.2 billion. “Shares have already risen quite a bit this year on monetary easing expectations.”
Jiangxi, Gome
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slid 1 percent, the Shanghai Composite Index retreated 1.5 percent and South Korea’s Kospi Index lost 0.5 percent. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average retreated 0.7 percent following its biggest gain since September. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index has rallied 12 percent this year after falling 17 percent in 2011.
Jiangxi Copper fell 1.9 percent in Hong Kong. China’s biggest producer of the metal recorded an 18 percent decline in second-half profit as slower economic growth curbed demand. Gome, China’s second-biggest electronics retailer, lost 17 percent after 2011 profit fell 6 percent, missing analyst estimates.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced this month an economic growth target of 7.5 percent for 2012, down from an annual 8 percent over the past seven years.
Sharp Corp. shares were bid at their daily limit in Tokyo after Foxconn Technology Group and founder Terry Gou agreed to invest 133 billion yen ($1.6 billion) in the TV maker and its display unit to secure flat panels.
Japanese Stocks
Japanese stocks fell today after the Nikkei 225 yesterday erased losses since the country’s record earthquake. A 7.2 percent drop in the yen and $241 billion of reconstruction spending have pushed the index up 20 percent this year, the second-best performance among major benchmark indexes in the developed world.
The yen gained versus all of its major counterparts as investors flocked to safe-haven assets amid a decline in Asian equities. The currency also strengthened on speculation Japanese companies will repatriate overseas earnings before the March 31 end of the fiscal year.
The euro climbed 0.1 percent to $1.3331. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said in a speech in Tokyo today that the euro area crisis is “almost over.”
Brent oil for May settlement slid 0.5 percent to $124.90 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. U.S. crude supplies rose 3.6 million barrels last week, data from the industry-funded American Petroleum Institute show. An Energy Department report today may show inventories gained 2.6 million barrels, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of analysts.
Natural Gas, Copper
Natural gas dropped 1 percent $2.185 per million British thermal units in New York. The contract for April delivery touched the lowest level in more than a decade yesterday on concern that a U.S. supply surplus will expand as the peak- demand season for the heating fuel draws to an end.
Copper dropped for first time in four days amid signs that demand growth in China, the world’s biggest user, is slowing. Aluminum and zinc fell at least 0.3 percent.
“Copper is still not free at all from the concern about a China slowdown,” Lelia Kim, a metals trader at Tong Yang Securities Inc. in Seoul, said today by telephone. “The tone for the broader metals market remains pretty bearish.”
Singapore is set to sell 30-year bonds for the first time today, extending the maturity of debt it will have on offer to the longest on record. The city-state will auction S$2.1 billion ($1.7 billion) of notes maturing in April 2042.
To contact the reporters on this story: Lynn Thomasson in Hong Kong at lthomasson@bloomberg.net ; Weiyi Lim in Singapore at wlim26@bloomberg.net
Steven Morris CA (SA)
Mobie : 083 943 1858
Fax: 086 671 2498
E-Mail: steven@global.co.za
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