HONG KONG, Oct 18: Asian stocks closed mixed on Tuesday with a positive overnight lead from Wall Street having only a limited impact as investors remained cautious over the global economic outlook.
Dealers said Seoul, Sydney and Hong Kong had benefited from gains in New York where a cost savings plan from General Motors had buoyed trade.
A higher close in Jakarta and Shanghai was attributed to technical factors while Taipei and Manila were flat.
However, Philippine investors could receive a boost. After trade the Supreme Court lifted a freeze on the government’s expanded value-added tax law, the centrepiece of efforts to end the country’s chronic budget deficit.
Elsewhere, upcoming earnings reports from the US weighed on Tokyo while Kuala Lumpur, Wellington, Bangkok and Singapore were all lower amid light profit taking.
TOKYO: Share prices chalked up modest losses as the market turned cautious ahead of leading US corporate earnings reports.
Dealers said a rise in the value of the dollar, which if sustained would boost Japanese companies’ overseas earnings, helped limit losses.
“Caution ahead of the release of quarterly results by such influential firms as Intel and Yahoo weighed on the market,” Shinko Securities equity strategist Tsuyoshi Segawa said.
“Japanese investors are also reluctant to chase the market sharply higher ahead of the start of the corporate reporting season in Japan,” he said.
Most technology firms such as Matsushita Electric, Sony, Sharp and Toshiba will report first-half to September results next week.
“The continued fall in the value of the yen increases expectations that some exporters may see much better-than-expected profits,” said Segawa.
Reflecting caution ahead of the US tech company results, Japanese custom-made chip maker Rohm lost 150 yen to 9,580 and Advantest shed 130 to 8,850. But Kobe Steel gained 18 yen to 334.
HONG KONG: Share prices closed 0.39 per cent higher following Wall Street’s overnight gains, with selected blue chips extending earlier gains.
China Mobile was up 0.50 at 34.70.
The Hang Seng Index closed up 56.05 points at 14,597.40 on turnover of 15.19 billion Hong Kong dollars (1.94 billion US dollars).
Dealers said gains in oil stocks also supported the index, with CNOOC up 0.075 at 5.05 and PetroChina up 0.10 to 6.05. Sinopec was flat at 3.425.
SYDNEY: Share prices rose 0.77 per cent with the market boosted by Wall Street’s positive lead and a resurgent local resources sector.
CMC Markets analyst David Land said the mood was upbeat as investors sought out familiar blue ship stocks, although the market remained far from confident following sharp losses earlier this month.
The SP/ASX 200 Index closed up 34.0 points at 4,459.3. Volume was 1.19 billion shares worth 3.57 billion dollars (2.68 billion US).
SINGAPORE: Share prices closed 0.19 per cent lower as investors took profits following a recent run-up.
The Straits Times Index fell 4.38 points to 2,284.16. Volume was 1.0 billion shares worth US$492 million.
KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices closed 0.18 per cent lower in rangebound trade on caution ahead of the third quarter earnings reporting season.
The Composite Index shed 1.63 points to 922.64. Volume was 367.07 million shares worth 563.17 million ringgit (149 million dollars).
JAKARTA: Share prices closed 0.53 per cent higher led by gains in market heavyweights Astra International and Telkom.
The composite index added 5.782 points to 1,095.873 on volume of 881.80 million shares worth 892.33 billion rupiah (88.37 million dollars).
WELLINGTON: Share prices closed 0.35 per cent lower due to caution over the country’s economic outlook, dealers said, adding Monday’s announcement of a new government had little impact on the market.
The NZSX-50 Index fell 11.77 points to 3,346.85 on light turnover of 73 million dollars (51 million US).
MUMBAI: Share prices fell 0.98 per cent in volatile trading as overseas fund buying slowed alongside sharp sales by retail investors and domestic funds in large capitalized companies.
The 30-share Sensex fell 80.37 points to 8,122.25 on volumes worth US$609 million.—AFP