Asian markets conclude the trade in red

25 Jul 2013 Evaluate

The Asian markets concluded Thursday’s trade in red tailing an overnight decline in stocks and commodities. Chinese shares closed lower in choppy trading, despite gains for railway-related companies after the central government vowed to fully open China’s railway construction market. This drop came even as Beijing unveiled new stimulus measures late on Wednesday, including tax cuts for small businesses. China’s job market showed some resilience in the first half despite economic difficulties, but officials warned that employment pressure remains high. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security spokesman Yin Chengji stated that China created more jobs in the first half compared with the same period last year. Figures from the ministry showed that China added 7.25 million jobs in the first six months of the year, an increase of 310,000 year on year. The registered urban unemployment rate stood at 4.1% at the end of the second quarter. Besides, new personal consumption loans soared in Shanghai in the first six months of this year mainly due to a surge in home transactions that have propelled new mortgages. The new personal consumption lending, including mortgages and auto loans, totaled 60 billion yuan ($9.7 billion) in Shanghai by the end of June, 50.8 billion yuan more from a year ago.

Nikkei plunged and investors unloaded shares amid concern about slow earnings growth and slack economic data. Jakarta Composite too ended the trade in red. The country’s rupiah fell to a four-year low on concern rising that US home sales will prompt the Federal Reserve to start reducing stimulus that has spurred demand for emerging-market assets. The Philippine import bill in May declined by 2.4% on year to 5.26 billion US dollars on back of a sharp decline in the value of electronics imports. Most of Philippine imports came from China, the US and South Korea. The trade gap in May narrowed to 364 million US dollars from 454 million US dollars deficit posted in the same period last year.

South Korean economy grew at the fastest pace in more than two years in the second quarter of this year as a turnaround in private consumption relieved the weak facility investment, central bank data showed. Real gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of economic performance, expanded 1.1% in the second quarter from three months earlier after gaining 0.8% in the previous quarter, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The reading was the highest since 1.3% tallied in the first quarter of 2011, beating market consensus of 0.8%.

Asian Indices

Last Trade

Change in Points

Change in %

Shanghai Composite

2021.17

-12.16

-0.60

Hang Seng

21900.96

-67.97

-0.31

Jakarta Composite

4674.12

-43.99

-0.93

KLSE Composite

1808.42

-1.58

-0.09

Nikkei 225

14562.93

-168.35

-1.14

Straits Times

3235.68

-39.08

-1.19

KOSPI Composite

1909.61

-2.47

-0.13

Taiwan Weighted

8163.58

-32.61

-0.40

 

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