Asian markets shrug off Hosokawa's resignation
Asian markets shrug off Hosokawa's resignation
TOKYO (Agencies): The Tokyo stock market closed higher
yesterday despite Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa's
announcement he will resign over the handling of personal loans.
Other Asian markets ended mixed in indifferent trading.close
at 9,298.22.
An initial flurry of selling followed the news of Hosokawa's
intended resignation, with the Nikkei average dropping as low as
19,520.90 points, but many investors were unsure how to react and
stopped trading.
The index ended up 44.01 points, or 0.22 percent, at
19,934.99.
In Hong Kong, share trading barely registered a pulse, with
share prices ending almost unchanged in extremely dull trading.
The blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 12.30 points to close at
9,298.22. It rose 268 points for the week in quiet trading after
reopening Wednesday from a five-day holiday.
In Singapore, Share prices closed broadly higher on bargain-
hunting by institutional traders on but late profit-taking
trimmed some gains, dealers said.
The barometer Straits Times Industrials index rose 13.71
points to finish at 2,120.24 points while the broader-based SES
All-Singapore index closed 2.99 points higher at 538.57 points.
In Bangkok, the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) index also
shrugged off the resignation of Japan's prime minister and closed
almost unchanged yesterday, drifting down 0.74 points (0.06
percent) to 1,224.00.
In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's key stock index closed marginally
lower, but prices were generally higher as investors bought
selective retail stocks made cheaper by the recent downturn.
The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange 85-stock weighted composite
index closed 4.23 points lower at 961.95 from 966.18 a day
earlier.
In Sydney, the key All Ordinaries Index was up almost 10
points at one stage but slumped to 10 points down, before
recovering some lost ground to finish 5.4 points down at 2082.
This was still a gain of 28.9 points for the week.
Shares on the London Stock Exchange were mostly unchanged on
early morning yesterday, underpinned by Wall Street's late
recovery overnight but with no new leads to inspire buying.
The blue-chip Financial Times Stock Exchange 100-share index
was at 3,129.0, unchanged from the previous close. The narrower
Financial Times 30 index was at 2,475.0, up 0.3 point.
In New York, stocks closed moderately higher in choppy trading
Thursday, with the Dow Jones industrial average, which edged up
4.32 points Wednesday, climbed another 13.53 points to 3693.26
for its third consecutive advance.
The New York Stock Exchange composite index rose 1.56 to
250.22, while Standard & Poor's 500-stock index climbed 2.83 to
450.88. The average price of a share gained 21 cents.