LONDON (CNNfn) - Hong Kong's leading index handed back more than half of last week's 1,077-point gain on Monday, tumbling 4 percent amid fears that the steamrolling U.S. economy would prod the U.S Federal Reserve to raise interest rates aggressively. Friday's big declines on Wall Street also spilled over into Singapore and Malaysia, though Tokyo rose 0.5 percent to its highest level in 30 months.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 Average in Tokyo rose 104.92 points to 19,539.70, its highest close since Aug. 8, 1997, driven by enthusiasm over several new investment trusts that promise to inject welcome capital into the region's largest equity market.
A plan by Nomura Asset Management to launch a new investment trust Wednesday valued at as much as 1 trillion yen ($9.4 billion) further lifted spirits following last week's launch of several other trusts.
Investors "bought on anticipation that Japanese stocks will firm later this week because of this investment," Koji Hatano, a strategist at Sakura Institute of research, told Reuters. "That helped set the Tokyo market free from Wall Street's influence."
Nissan Diesel Motor shot up 12.6 percent to 116 yen after the Industrial Bank of Japan said the beleaguered truckmaker was likely to reach a debt agreement in the near future.
Index heavyweight Sony Corp. climbed nearly half a percent, in line with the broader Nikkei 225 advance, while Internet investor Softbank Corp. rose by its daily limit of 5,000 yen to a new all-time high of 105,000 yen, supported by the gung-ho reception for a recent wave of new ventures. Elsewhere in the Internet sector, Yahoo! Japan shot up by its daily limit of 2 million yen, or nearly 2 percent, to its own lifetime peak of 105 million yen after Nikko Salomon Smith Barney raised its target price last week to 138.58 million yen.
But the negative mood on Wall Street Friday, when all three major indexes tumbled, hit Japanese financial stocks. The big three brokerage firms all retreated after last week's strong run-up. Daiwa Securities ended down 3.6 percent at 1,745 yen and Nikko Securities finished 1.7 percent lower at 1,490 yen.
In Hong Kong, the leading Hang Seng index ended down 653.60 points, just over 4 percent, at 653.60 points. The decline erased much of last week's 7.1 percent gain.
Bank and property stocks, seen as especially sensitive to any monetary tightening, were among the biggest decliners as investors eyed the possibility of a half-percentage-point rate hike when the Federal Reserve meets this week. The index's bellwether blue chips all took a hit, with Hutchison Whampoa shedding 4.7 percent amid jitters over the outcome of Vodafone AirTouch's hostile takeover bid for Germany's Mannesmann, in which Hutchison holds a 10.2 percent stake. Hutchison's parent Cheung Kong Holdings gave up 4.6 percent.
Banking giant HSBC Holdings slid 2.6 percent, while China Telecom plummeted just under 8 percent, accounting for 252 points of the index's total loss Monday.
On Wall Street Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 2.6 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq gave up 3.8 percent - bringing its weekly loss to 8.2 percent, its worst ever - and the S&P 500 index shed 2.8 percent.
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index shed 2.4 percent to close at 2,230.28, its lowest level since early December. Recent high-flying technology and banking stocks were among the worst performing issues.
The All Ordinaries index in Australia defied the Wall Street gloom, closing up 3.9 points at 3,096.0, as investors homed in on index heavyweights such as Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. The media giant, accounting for about 11.5 percent of the blue-chip index, ended 8.5 percent higher at A$18.45 after Merrill Lynch lifted its price target for the company's American Depositary Receipts to $65; the ADRs closed at $46 Friday. Key mining stocks also advanced on the heels of first-half earnings reports and with the aid of a weaker Australian dollar.
Seoul stocks also ended higher as concern eased that local interest rates may be headed higher. The benchmark Kospi added 0.2 percent to end at 943.88, despite profit taking in index powerhouse Samsung Electronics, which fell 4.1 percent to 279,000 won.
Kuala Lumpur's main index gave up 1.4 percent amid retail selling ahead of the Chinese New Year, while Manila and Taiwan each headed the opposite way, rising 1 percent. Jakarta ended fractionally higher supported by late buying of blue chips such as cigarette maker H.M. Sampoerna and car conglomerate Astra International. Thailand's benchmark index was little changed. 
--from staff and wire reports
|
