Asian equities drift lower despite a largely positive opening

22 Aug 2011 Evaluate

With the exception of Japanese benchmark which traded with marginal gains, all other equity indices in Asia have gone back to demonstrate the somber trend prevailing in the global equity markets for quite some time now, as cautious investors appeared reluctant to open fresh positions and instead resorted to book profits at higher levels. After a horrendous week, most markets in the region had got off to a positive opening shrugging off a weak close on Wall Street on Friday. However, most Asian indices have surrendered all the gains and are trading with a negative bias as apart from apprehensions over faltering growth in the US and the worsening euro-zone's debt crisis, reports of Morgan Stanley downgrading global economic growth, fear that developed economies are on the verge of entering a recession again, continued to play spoilsport.

The benchmarks in Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea were trading with losses of around a percent in the session as jittery investors remained on sidelines amid no signs of resolution from the European Union and its banks. Technology shares remained under pressure as Hewlett-Packard, the personal-computer maker reduced its outlook and said it might spin off its PC unit. However, only Tokyo shares managed to hold their head above the water as export oriented shares gained traction after the yen eased against the American dollar amid mounting speculations that Japanese authorities may soon conduct another currency market intervention to halt further rises in yen and protect the earnings of key exporters.

Shanghai Composite eased 2.55 points or 0.10% to 2,531.81, Hang Seng slipped 8.97 points or 0.05% to 19,390.95, Jakarta Composite plunged 37.98 points or 0.99% to 3,804.77, KLSE Composite sank 12.15 points or 0.82% to 1,471.83, Straits Times shaved off 19.97 points or 0.73% to 2,713.66, Seoul Composite declined 11.13 points or 0.64% to 1,733.75 and Taiwan Weighted shed 12.40 points or 0.17% to 7,330.56.

On the flip side only, Nikkei 225 inched up by 16.33 points or 0.19% to 8,735.57.

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