HK, Taiwan marts make slight gains
HK, Taiwan marts make slight gains
HONG KONG (Reuter): Asian stock markets showed little movement yesterday with Taipei and Hong Kong shares closing slightly higher despite China's new round of war drills near Taiwan.
Taiwan's weighted index, recently buoyed by a government stabilization fund, weathered the tension to end up 0.57 points, or 0.01 percent, to finish at 4,941.42.
Brokers said concerns over tensions with China were easing despite yesterday's scheduled start of a new round of military exercises in the Taiwan Strait. "However, there were still some lingering fears generating selling pressure when the index rose," said Michael Hung of Nikko Securities.
Hong Kong's blue-chip Hang Seng Index gained 43.70 points to end at 10,601.28.
"Trade remains cautious in view of military tensions in the Taiwan Strait, which left the market fumbling for direction," said Sean Li, an associate director at Amsteel Securities.
In Tokyo, the 225-share Nikkei average finished up 94.28 points, or 0.47 percent, at 20,285.13 despite uncertainty over Japan's budget, a national holiday on Wednesday and the approach of the last trading day for this month's settlements early next week.
The Jakarta and Bangkok indices also finished in positive territory.
Shares in Jakarta edged up at close on the back of continued buying of secondliners and heavyweight Telkom, brokers said.
The Jakarta Stock Exchange Composite Index gained 2.07 points, or 0.36 percent, to close at 578.86 points.
The SET index in Bangkok finished 9.95 points up at 1,277.01.
Brokers in Singapore said investors remained jittery over poor corporate results and China-Taiwan friction.
The 30-share Straits Times Industrials Index dipped 5.86 points, or 0.25 percent, to 2,361.45.
The composite stock index in Seoul fell 2.12 points as investors waited for the state-backed Stock Market Stabilization Fund to make a move towards boosting the market, brokers said. The index closed at 854.46.
The 30-share Bombay index dropped 1.5 percent largely on sharp losses by index heavyweights ITC and Reliance, traders said.
The index slipped 49.10 points to a provisional close of 3294.17.
The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange Composite Index ended down 4.17 points at 1,115.72, after hitting an intraday low of 1,108.98.
In Manila, the composite index rose 36.74 points to 2,858.49.
The Australian share market retreated in the afternoon session to end flat as profit-takers snatched away the gains made up to the midsession.
The All Ordinaries index was 0.2 points lower at 2,234.6.
The Financial Times-Stock Exchange index of 100 leading British shares had risen 6.9 points to 3,651.7.
In Paris, the CAC-40 share index dropped 4.60 to 1,945.52.
The 30-share DAX index in Frankfurt was up 3.32 at 2,461.55.