Friday, November 20, 2009

Foreign Market Wrap

Asian markets ended mostly lower Friday as technology shares sagged after their U.S. peers took a beating, while an overnight pullback in commodity prices weighed down resource stocks.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index fell back another 51.79 points, or 0.5%, to 9,497.68

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index ended a miserable week by giving back 187.32 points, or 0.8%, to 22,455.84.

Technology shares fell, tracking their U.S. counterparts, on a downgrade of Intel and seven other microchip companies by Bank of America-Merrill Lynch as well as weak earnings from Dell.

Elpida Memory lost 2% and Toshiba gave up 2.2% in Tokyo, while Samsung Electronics fell 0.5% in Seoul. ProMOS Technologies sank 3.7% and Chi Mei Optoelectronics fell 2.6% in Taipei.

Japanese banking stocks staged a modest rebound after a string of declines on concerns about equity-dilution from capital-boosting measures. Shares of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group gained 1.1%, Mizuho Financial Group added 1.9% and Resona Holdings climbed 2.5%.

Rio Tinto fell 1.9% and BHP Billiton dropped 2% in Sydney, Aluminum Corp. of China fell 2.3% and Jiangxi Copper lost 1.6% in Hong Kong; in Shanghai, they fell 1.7% and 1.5%, respectively.

Woodside Petroleum was down 2.8%, PetroChina gave up 1.2% in Hong Kong and 0.9% in Shanghai, while Inpex lost 3% in Tokyo.

Earlier in the day, the Bank of Japan's board members Friday decided to leave the policy target rate unchanged at 0.1% -- a rate it has held since December last year -- to try and revitalize the overall economy by capping borrowing rates. The board said it would keep financial conditions very accommodative

Elsewhere:

The Shanghai 300 Composite Index slid 11.42 points, or 0.3%, to 3,631.01, its first decline in six sessions.

Taiwan's Taiex index skidded 77.01 points, or 1%, to 7,682.97

Singapore's Straits Times index was up 2.75 points to 2,761.54

Korea's Kospi index gained 0.06 points, to 1,620.60

New Zealand's NZX Index finished 27.55 points lower, or 0.9%, to 3,141.18

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dumped 63.40 points, or 1.3%, to 4,685.20