The stock market indexes in Asia and the Pacific suffered losses for the third consecutive session today in line with the red wave that flooded the financial markets yesterday in the U.S. and Europe. The reason for this was the decision of the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s to lower its assessment of the prospect of U.S. government debt to negative. This is a sign that the largest economy in the world could soon lose its highest investment grade. Fall in oil and metals brought losses of energy and mining companies, and the losers among stocks in the composition of the regional index MSCI Asia Pacific were those of the Japanese carmaker Toyota. The Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.2 percent to 9 441.03 points, after it became clear that in March the attitudes of Japanese households in the economy significantly worsened. S & P / ASX 200 slid 1.4 percent to 4 793.30 points, led by mining companies. The shares of the technology sector also fell after the financial results for the first quarter, the largest maker of analog chips in the world – U.S. Texas Instruments, proved weaker than market expectations. The wide Chinese Shanghai Composite Index slid 1.9 percent to 2 999.04 points and Hong Kong Hang Seng fell 1.3% to 23 520.60 points. Economic data for China showed that FDI in the country increased by 33% in March to 12.5 billion dollars. In the first quarter registered improvement from 29% yoy. Meanwhile, the HSBC Bank published its index of business activity in the factory sector in the country, which remains at a level of 51.8 points for the second consecutive month in April.
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The share prices on stock exchanges in Asia and the Pacific continued to fall for the fourth consecutive session, with the leading stock index in China’s Shanghai Composite increased its loss for the period to over 10%. The securities markets in China experienced the strongest decline from August 2009 until now because of growing concerns about monetary policy the central bank and the government’s intentions to control the pace of economic growth. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday that Beijing is considering measures to reduce the appreciation of food because of rising inflation in the country. Food prices were 10.1 percent above their levels of last October. This increase concerns that measures to curb inflation in China will reduce consumption of raw materials and the economic growth rates, which depress the prices of most traded goods delivered Bloomberg. Auctions of shares today fell regional index MSCI Asia Pacific by 0.9 percent to 129.47 points and earned him the biggest four-day loss since August 2009 amounted to 4%. The decline in metal prices fell and oil shares of mining and energy companies in the region, while the loser among the national index was Hang Seng. He slid 2 percent to 23 214.46 points after three days of record high turnover traded. Shanghai Stock Exchange broader Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.9% to 2 838.86 points and thus increase its loss for the last four sessions to 10.13 percent. Chinese central bank in October increased its key interest rate by an unexpected 2.25% to 2,5%, last week raised the minimum reserve requirements of large banks in the country.
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The exchange session in the Asia Pacific region passed under the dictation of the bears as the regional index MSCI Asia Pacific reported its biggest decline for the past three months. The reason for this were problems in the euro area and new regulations on real estate market in China that threaten to collapse in house prices. Today MSCI Asia Pacific fell 2.4 percent to 119.77 points, all markets in the region colored in red. Strongest decline in the stock was China, where CSI 300 lost 4.6 percent goals to 2 896.86 points. Today was particularly strong pressure on the industry of real estate that were on sale. In Hong Kong Hang Seng retreated by 0.96 per cent to 20 Punta 133.41, while in Taiwan Taiex lost 1.5 percent to 7 579.48 points. Exchange in South Korea did Kospi slid 2 percent to 1 684.71 points. Japan’s main Nikkei 225 index lost 3.3 percent today, which is its biggest daily decline since March last year so far.
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The rally in Asian and Pacific stock markets continue after China reported the export of its first annual growth for the past 14 months in December. The growth of imports of goods into the country to record levels has an even better sign for the prospects of the global economy. Moreover, last year China has become the biggest market for cars gain on U.S. forward Bloomberg. Sales of cars, buses and trucks in the country increased by 46% yoy to 13.6 million units compared to 10.4 million units in the United States. The regional index MSCI Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, rose by 1.1 percent during today’s session at 432.24 points. Most of extractive companies that helped after the delivery of copper in three months rose by nearly 3% to 7 675 dollars per metric ton on the London Stock Exchange. Gold price, in turn, jumped to a record 1.8 percent last month to 1 158.4 dollars an ounce. With increased session ended in Shanghai, where the Shanghai Composite rose by 0.5 percent to 3 212.75 points, led by financial companies and those in the real estate sector. Yesterday it became clear that exports to China increased by 17.7% yoy in December to 130.7 billion dollars, while imports of Asian countries increased by nearly 56 percent to a record high value of 112.3 billion dollars. Complete with increased trade and exchange in Hong Kong where the Hang Seng added 0.5% to its value at 22 411.52 points. More strongly increased the index of blue chips in Australia S & P / ASX 200, which rose by 0.8 percent to 4 950.7 points, supported by extractive companies. New Zealand NZX 50 closed session, however, negative territory, losing 0.2 percent to 3 303.75 points.
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