Northward journey continues in Asian region on Wednesday

14 Mar 2012 Evaluate

Buoyed by positive economic data from US, most of the Asian equity indices continued their northward journey for yet another day on Wednesday. The US retail sales for February, which rose at their fastest pace in five months, and positive stress tests for 15 of the 19 largest US banks helped push stocks on Wall Street to multiyear closing highs. Meanwhile, Japanese Nikkei average climbed over 1.5 percent to close above 10,000 level for the first time in seven months as Japanese exporters continued to benefit from the yen’s weakness; Toyota Motor advanced 2.3 percent and Sony jumped 4.7 percent. However, Hong Kong pared most of its early gains and was down by 0.15 percent on Wednesday while Shanghai fell 2.63 percent after Chinese Premier Wen  Jiabao warned of a risk of a property bubble, denting hopes of an easing of tight real estate rules.

Asian Indices

Last Trade

Change in Points

Change in %

Shanghai Composite

2,391.23

-64.57

-2.63

Hang Seng

21,307.89

-31.81

-0.15

Jakarta Composite

4,054.33

45.68

1.14

KLSE Composite

1,575.71

11.69

0.75

Nikkei 225

10,050.52

151.44

1.53

Straits Times

3,026.40

37.33

1.25

Seoul Composite

2,045.08

20.04

0.99

Taiwan Weighted

8,125.26

93.75

1.17

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