Asian equities retreat on renewed Euro-zone worries

22 Dec 2011 Evaluate

A session after rallying higher, Asian equity indices retreated to lower levels on Thursday as worries over that Euro-zone’s sovereign debt woes once again came to the fore. Even as the European Central Bank infused 489.19 billion euro into 523 financial institutions in Europe at ultra-low interests under its newly-activated three-year lending facility, uncertainty over how the banks will use the funds and also doubts over how much of the funds banks raised will actually flow into struggling euro zone economies, persisted among investors. The ECB move failed to encourage market participants as the scale of the operation indicated that European lenders believe that funding shortages were likely to continue into 2012.

The benchmark in Japan slipped for the first time in last three sessions and traded with around half a percent loss as investors remained on the sidelines ahead of a holiday. Shares in Hong Kong too halted the two session upmove as European banks sought more cash from the ECB than estimated and sales of existing US homes missed forecasts, damping the global demand outlook.

Shanghai Composite declined 9.63 points or 0.44% to 2,181.52, Hang Seng slipped 93.23 points or 0.51% to 18,323.22, Jakarta Composite eased 3.81 points or 0.10% to 3,798.08, Nikkei 225 shed 44.19 points or 0.52% to 8,415.79, Straits Times dropped 7.93 points or 0.30% to 2,665.39, Seoul Composite decreased 4.01 points or 0.22% to 1,844.40 and Taiwan Weighted inched down 3.56 points or 0.05% to 6,962.92.

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