The spillover in the lack of confidence about central bankers and their game of being the great economic pretenders with all the answers is rapidly approaching checkmate.This is a global game, not an isolated one. The stakes are high.
Things in Korea and Hong Kong weren't much better with Hong Kong languishing slightly but the overall mood was not good among investors as concerns about the global picture mount.
Stocks in Japan were getting absolutely destroyed in early trade on Friday. The Nikkei and Topix indexes, the major benchmarks in Japan, were down over 5% on Friday morning.
The early dump in Japanese stocks follows what was an ugly day in the US, where the major averages fell as much as 2% before a recovery into the close. It was still not a good day in global markets, and the week — a rocky one — looks to be ending on yet another difficult note.
Before markets opened on Friday, Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso "stepped up his verbal intervention," Reuters reported. The Japanese yen, which rallied on Thursday, was little changed following Aso's commentary.
Trading
on Korea’s tech-focused exchange, the Kosdaq, was briefly halted Friday
morning after shares fell 8.2% and triggered a 20-minute circuit
breaker.
A large sell-down from a foreign investor and a pension fund helped spark the rout, said Gyun Jun, head of derivatives research for Samsung Securities, based in Seoul. The foreign investor dumped about 60 billion Korean won (US$50 million) worth of shares, and the pension fund sold off 30 billion Korean won (US$25 million) in stock, he said.
Other investors, dismayed by the global market turmoil, trimmed holdings in medical companies with high valuations, including biopharmaceutical firm Celltrion, whose shares plunged 12.4% in the morning, he added.
Hong Kong shares were steady Friday as investors piled into casino stocks.
The Hang Seng Index was languishing in negative territory, down 0.9% at 18,379, as investors are skittish about the strength of the global economy and market turmoil. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, a gauge of Chinese companies listed in Hong Kong, is down 1.2% to 7,566.
Macau gaming stocks, however, surged on data showing an increase in tourist arrivals during the Lunar New Year holiday. The number of mainland tourists during the period rose 6.7% from a year earlier to 390,000 visitors.
The positive data gave a fresh boost to shares of casino operators, including MGM China, up 4.9%, Wynn Macau, up 4%, and Galaxy Entertainment, up 2.9%.
“There are some sectors that are doing quite well, such as Macau gaming, so investors may be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel,” says Daniel So, strategist for China Merchants Bank International.
A large sell-down from a foreign investor and a pension fund helped spark the rout, said Gyun Jun, head of derivatives research for Samsung Securities, based in Seoul. The foreign investor dumped about 60 billion Korean won (US$50 million) worth of shares, and the pension fund sold off 30 billion Korean won (US$25 million) in stock, he said.
Other investors, dismayed by the global market turmoil, trimmed holdings in medical companies with high valuations, including biopharmaceutical firm Celltrion, whose shares plunged 12.4% in the morning, he added.
Hong Kong shares were steady Friday as investors piled into casino stocks.
The Hang Seng Index was languishing in negative territory, down 0.9% at 18,379, as investors are skittish about the strength of the global economy and market turmoil. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, a gauge of Chinese companies listed in Hong Kong, is down 1.2% to 7,566.
Macau gaming stocks, however, surged on data showing an increase in tourist arrivals during the Lunar New Year holiday. The number of mainland tourists during the period rose 6.7% from a year earlier to 390,000 visitors.
The positive data gave a fresh boost to shares of casino operators, including MGM China, up 4.9%, Wynn Macau, up 4%, and Galaxy Entertainment, up 2.9%.
“There are some sectors that are doing quite well, such as Macau gaming, so investors may be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel,” says Daniel So, strategist for China Merchants Bank International.
No comments:
Post a Comment