Asian markets trade mostly in the red; Apple results weigh

24 Jan 2013 Evaluate

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red on Thursday, with tech shares sliding early in the session after Apple Inc announced disappointing earnings on January 23. Meanwhile, South Korea’s economy grew 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 on a quarterly basis but, fell short of around 0.8 percent growth that the Bank of Korea had projected as recently as in October, underscoring a delayed global recovery due to persistent uncertainties hobbling the major economies.

However, the losses remained capped as Japanese Nikkei edged higher by over a percent despite yen paring gains after country’s exports fell more than forecast and the annual trade deficit swelled to a record. Moreover, China reported that its manufacturing expanded at the fastest rate in two years. HSBC preliminary purchasing managers’ index (PMI) reached 51.9 for this month, up from a final 51.5 in December. The January figure is the highest for 24 months.

Shanghai Composite slipped 1.73 points or 0.07% to 2,319.18, Hang Seng dipped 35.77 points or 0.15% to 23,599.33, KOSPI Composite declined 5.89 points or 0.30% to 1,974.52 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 32.29 points or 0.42% to 7,711.89.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 surged 115.22 points or 1.10% to 10,602.21 and Straits Times was up by 11.44 points or 0.35% to 3,242.67.

Stock markets in Indonesia and Malaysia remained close for the trade today.

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