The Asian markets have made a positive start with Chinese market taking the lead as decline in industrial profits has again raised speculation that its central bank will take measures to support economic growth. A government report showed that Chinese industrial companies’ profits dropped for a fifth month in August, net income fell 6.2 percent from a year earlier to 381.2 billion yuan ($60.4 billion). Industrial companies’ profits in the first eight months of the year declined 3.1 percent to 3.06 trillion yuan. However, revenue for the companies in the first eight months increased by 10.2 percent from a year earlier to 57.6 trillion yuan. Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has said that Japan will never budge on its ownership over islands in the East China Sea, escalating further tension. Earlier, China and Japan held talks on September 25 in New York that failed to ease a feud.
Shanghai Composite was up by 4.52 points or 0.23% to 2,008.69, Hang Seng gained 92.97 points or 0.45% to 20,620.70, Jakarta Composite added 27.02 points or 0.64% to 4,206.79, KLSE Composite was up by 7.79 points or 0.47% to 1,627.04, Straits Times gained 13.88 points or 0.45% to 3,061.14, Kospi Composite added 3.74 points or 0.19% to 1,984.10 and Taiwan Weighted was higher by 16.90 points or 0.22% to 7,686.63.
On the other hand Nikkei 225 was the lone loser, marginally down by 3.04 points or 0.03% to 8,903.66.