|
Japan ignores festive cheer
|
 |
December 24, 1998: 5:11 a.m. ET
Hong Kong and Singapore toast gains as Nikkei drowns its sorrows
|
LONDON (CNNfn) - Tokyo stocks drifted 0.5 percent lower Thursday while most other Asian markets posted gains ahead of their Christmas break. In a day of abbreviated trading, Hong Kong closed 1.3 percent higher and Singapore advanced 0.6 percent.
A Santa Claus rally on Wall Street and a buoyant session in Europe Wednesday brought some welcome festive cheer to Asian stocks.
The Philippines climbed 1.1 percent while Australia, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia and Thailand all posted more modest gains by their closes.
The only other humbug was Taiwan which dipped 0.1 percent.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei average shed 0.53 percent or 72.72 points to close at 13,706.73.
There was little driving the market. "It is not as if earnings are being reported all that prevalently," said Robert Sasaki, head of quantitative strategy at Jardine Fleming. "There was no political news, no economic news and so higher interest rates were a serious concern."
That dragged down bank stocks. They closed 2.2 percent lower as a group because of rising bond yields. These spell lower earnings for financial institutions.
But technology stocks were boosted by a record finish on the U.S., pulling the Nikkei in the other direction.
"If it wasn't for the high-tech rally we would have seen the Nikkei down 300 points," said Sasaki.
Sanwa Bank plunged more than 6 percent to 888 yen while Sakura Bank lost 7.25 percent to 256 yen.
But the tech rally pushed up NEC, which added 2 percent to 1,040 yen, and Mitsubishi which surged almost 5 percent to 338 yen.
Real estate stocks, which closed 3.4 percent down, and construction stocks, which ended 0.7 percent lower, also weighed heavily on the Nikkei.
Hong Kong was only open for a half-day but the Hang Seng index managed to add 1.3 percent or 133.45 points to 10,292.2 in very low volumes.
HSBC Holdings rose HK$2 to HK$199 while Cheung Kong bounced from Wednesday's losses to climb 75 cents to HK$58. Hutchison Whampoa, which also suffered Wednesday on the back of bearish comments by chairman Li Ka-shing, climbed HK$1.75 to HK$55.75.
Developer New World also did well, climbing 1.8 percent to HK$20.25 while red chip Shanghai Industrial added 60 cents to HK$15.95.
Singapore stocks climbed 0.6 percent or 8.22 points to 1,392.75. But again there was little movement among stocks.
"It was very, very quiet today," said Salomon Brothers sales trader Mark Julliem. "It was helped by overnight markets and neighboring markets."
ST Capital, which has lost ground recently, was the most heavily traded stock of the day. It added 5 cents to 46 cents.
There was little movement elsewhere Australia and Korea both closed 0.33 percent higher. The Philippines added 1.14 percent while Thailand climbed 0.77 percent. Malaysia inched 0.22 percent higher while Indonesia closed up 0.33 percent.
Taiwan dampened the region's seasonal spirit by closing down a negligible 0.08 percent.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
