RP shares star in Asia, Tokyo ends up
RP shares star in Asia, Tokyo ends up
SINGAPORE (Agencies): Philippine stocks surged 17 percent on
Monday after the weekend departure of President Joseph Estrada,
bracing markets elsewhere in Asia, and Tokyo shares staged a late
recovery to notch up their seventh successive gain.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei ended up 0.31 percent at 14,032.42, after
spending most of the day in negative territory.
The index was down more than one percent at one point, as
gains in the yen drove profit taking in exporter stocks.
The Nikkei's sequence of seven straight gains is its longest
positive run since it rose for eight sessions in August 1999.
Trading was subdued in some markets ahead of the Chinese New
Year holidays, but Manila celebrated the peaceful transfer of
power from Estrada to Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
The 33-share composite index leapt 17.6 percent or 255 points,
to end at 1,708 points -- its biggest one-day gain ever.
"A lot of the foreign funds that have sold down the Philippine
market have participated today...A big percentage is foreign
buying, probably higher than 50 percent," said Vanessa Lim, fund
manager of UCPB Trust, which manages funds of close to 30 billion
pesos.
The gains in most markets, Singapore a notable exception as it
was down around 0.80 percent in afternoon trade, came despite a
weaker lead-in from the United States.
U.S. stocks were hurt on Friday by concerns over the slowing
of the economy, with the blue-chip Home Depot warning of
disappointing profits and U.S. consumer sentiment falling to its
lowest level in more than two years during December.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 90.7 points, or 0.9
percent, to 10.587.6, while the Nasdaq index finished up less the
two points, or 0.07 percent, at 2770.4.
The softer U.S. market took some of the momentum out of the
U.S. dollar, which had hit a 17-month high of 119.90 yen last
week, and it eased to a one-week low of 116.25 yen.
That saw investors taking profit on Japanese exporter stocks
such as Sony, which had gained as the weakening yen boosted their
potential export income, before the late recovery.
"The yen's rebound is inviting investors to lock in profits on
export-sensitive high-techs after last week's surge," said
Hidenori Kawasaki, general manager in Kokusai Securities'
equities trading division.
The Philippines' record gains bolstered Hong Kong's Hang Seng
Index, which hit 16,000 points for the first time in three
months.
At the midday break the Hang Seng was up 0.85 percent at
16,069.4. A key driver was the 21 percent gain in First Pacific,
a conglomerate with many assets in the Philippines.
However, the index was struggling to go too far beyond 16,000
in late morning trade, as many blue chips drew profit taking in
the wake of sharp gains late last week and ahead of the holidays.
The Hong Kong stock market will close at lunchtime Tuesday for
the lunar new year holiday, and will reopen next Monday. Taiwan's
market is already closed and will also reopen next Monday.
Indonesian shares ended higher as blue chips rallied across
the board, led by foreign buying in bellwether Telkom.
The JSX Composite index ended up 1.5 percent, or 6.350 points,
at 417.908. Gainers led decliners 73 to 48 with 68 unchanged.
Volume was 305 million shares valued at Rp 311 billion.
The market made strong gains in the afternoon as foreign
brokerages snapped up Telkom shares, with the stock closing up
4.2 percent, or Rp 100, to Rp 2,475 after its American Depositary
Receipts climbed 3.6 percent to $5.3475 Friday.