Asian shares retreat, high yield currencies gain

Written by Reuters
Thursday, 24 September 2009 15:31

HONG KONG: Asian shares outside Japan fell on Thursday, Sept 24 mirroring investor caution in the United States, while the dollar lost ground to higher-yielding currencies after the Fed pledged to keep interest rates low, according to Reuters.

European stock futures were down 0.5 percent while U.S. equity futures were down 0.08 percent.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei index jumped 1.7 percent after a three-day holiday break, reflecting gains made in the rest of the region at the start of the week.

Investors otherwise were taking a breather and the MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks traded outside Japan was down 1 percent. That, however, marked only a slight pullback given the index has nearly doubled since early March when markets began factoring in an economic improvement.

The Thomson Reuters index of regional stocks was down around 1.3 percent.

Shares in Korea fell 1 percent with some concern that a strengthening Korean won could hurt export competitiveness.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index shed nearly 3 percent by midday and new listing Metallurgical Corp of China, a Chinese engineering company and the market's biggest IPO so far this year, slid 13 percent below its issue price, as investors fretted about the outlook for China's steel industry.

The dollar was up 0.3 percent against a basket of currencies but lost ground against the higher yielding Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar after the Fed reiterated a pledge to keep interest rates very low for a long period. The Fed also said that U.S. economic activity was picking up but did not surprise investors.

"The Fed didn't make much of a change to factors surrounding the dollar. That means the overall dollar trend stays downwards," said Jun Kato, senior chief analyst at Shinkin Central Bank Research Institute in Tokyo.

The Aussie dollar rose to $0.8734, nearing its 13-month high of US$0.8790 while the Kiwi was firm but off 14-month highs reached on Wednesday after data showed New Zealand had pulled out of recession.

Economic recovery in Japan meanwhile is likely to take time as data on Thursday showed a slump in Japanese exports last month although that did not deter stock investors.

Electronics maker Sony Corp surged 3 percent after the company said sales of the PlayStation 3 video game console jumped after a price cut last month.

Japan Airlines bucked the trend, though, plunging 18 percent to a record low after sources said it might be broken up and public broadcaster NHK reported the airline may seek a public bail-out.

Markets will be eying a two-day G20 summit in Pittsburgh starting on Thursday for further clues on the health of the global economy and when governments might start rolling back support measures for economic growth.

Japanese and Korean government bonds followed U.S. Treasuries higher on the Fed's dovish stance although gains in Japanese treasuries were capped by a rising equity market.

December 10-year Japanese government bond futures rose 0.27 point to 138.82.

Gold bounced back to around $1,010 an ounce, after sliding to a New York close at US$1,007.05. It has been supported by underlying weakness in the U.S. dollar and is now about 1 percent off an 18-month high reached last Thursday at US$1,023.85.

Oil prices remained weak, sliding 0.7 percent to US$68.5 after shedding nearly 4 percent on Wednesday when a jump in stockpiles raised concerns about the strength of demand. - Reuters