Asian markets conclude Thursday’s trade mostly in green

26 Dec 2013 Evaluate

The Asian markets barring Shanghai Composite and Seoul Composite concluded Thursday’s trade in green while Hong Kong and Indonesian markets remained shut for the trade today on account of Christmas Holidays. Markets in Korea were higher for the seventh straight session, after a break for Christmas. Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average extended its six-year high, pushing comfortably above the psychologically important 16,000 mark as a weak yen attracted foreign investors, and as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tackled some of the remaining doubt over his stimulus measures. In Japan, markets responded well following two upbeat reports on the state of the Japanese economy from the government and Bank of Japan earlier in the week. Yet minutes of the Bank of Japan’s November 20-21 board meeting released showed that not all members were convinced that the country’s growth was on a long-term upward trend. One member stated that the recent deceleration in real gross domestic product growth could signal a downward shift in the economy’s trend.

China will likely stick with this year’s growth target of 7.5% for 2014 as top leaders balance the need to keep the economy on an even keel while pushing through necessary structural reforms. China’s banks are grappling with a surge of bad loans from three key sectors, led by the wholesale and retail sector. Non-performing loans in the wholesale and retail sector reached 2.6% -- far above the banking industry average in 2013 -- with information technology following at 2.0% and manufacturing at 1.8%. Japanese Housing Starts rose to a seasonally adjusted 14.1%, from 7.1% in the preceding quarter. Industrial Production in Singaporean fell to an annual rate of 4.0%, from 8.3% in the preceding month whose figure was revised up from 8.0%.

Asian Indices

Last Trade

Change in Points

Change in %

Shanghai Composite

2073.10

-33.25

-1.58

Hang Seng

-

-

-

Jakarta Composite

-

-

-

KLSE Composite

1844.10

8.61

0.47

Nikkei 225

16174.44

164.45

1.03

Straits Times

3134.36

7.07

0.23

KOSPI Composite

1999.30

-2.29

-0.11

Taiwan Weighted

8485.89

18.13

0.21

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