The wave of increased sales, which covered yesterday the securities markets in Europe and the U.S. broke today and Asian stock exchanges. Although it was expected, the decision by ratings agency Standard & Poor’s to cut the credit rating of Greece and Portugal brought sharp decreases in the indexes and the risk premium on government securities of the two countries jumped sharply. Regional stock measure MSCI Asia Pacific, which brings together public companies from 10 Asian countries plus Australia and New Zealand slid 1.6 percent to 125.20 points today. This is his fourth decline in five trading session, and meanwhile the cost of insurance to protect against the failure of Asian countries reached its highest level since February. Stock prices of raw materials and the euro rate fell because of concerns that the fiscal crisis in Greece will be released in the eurozone. President of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet will meet with German politicians and the head of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn in Berlin today to discuss a possible rescue plan for Greece. All ten industry groups included in the MSCI Asia Pacific, noted a sharp drop as financial companies ran among the losers. Among national indexes in the region most Japanese Nikkei fell 225, which slid 2.6 percent to 10 924.79 points as investors shrugged off a strong 5-percent increase in retail sales in Japan in March.
Read the full story