Asia Pacific markets continued to climb

Translated from Lianhe Zaobao (Chinese), published 28 Jul 2009

Market Performance
Stock Index	Closing Level	% Change
Manila	2732.62	2.1
Shanghai	3435.212	1.9
Shenzhen	1126.009	1.9
Singapore	2576.66	1.7
Tokyo	10088.66	1.5
Hong Kong	20251.62	1.4
Seoul	1524.05	1.4
Jakarta	2209.101	1.1
Bangkok	617.83	0.6
Kuala Lumpur	1156.43	0.1
Taipei	7028.43	0.1

As investors expect economic recovery to lead to positive knock-on effects on company earnings, Asia Pacific markets yesterday continued to rise. A fund manager from Credit Suisse Asset Management said an influx of hot money is driving up popular stocks, but there is a growing risk of capital being re-directed to selected markets where more IPOs are carried out.

Among Asia Pacific markets, Manila performed the best with a rise of 2.1% to 2732.62. This is despite a bomb threat at the Manila Stock Exchange. Popular stocks included blue chips such as Manila Electric and Ayala. After trading for the day ended, the Manila Stock Exchange clarified that the bomb threat was a hoax and trading will continue today.

Singapore’s market also rose 1.7% to 2576.66 and has risen 46.3% thus far this year. Among the top gainers are SingTel, UOB and DBS Holdings. These 3 stocks are responsible for a gain of 31 points in the STI index.

A trader said that as economic data is generally positive and earnings results announced to date are better than forecasted, investors are led to believe that stock markets have entered a period of recovery.

In other markets, Hong Kong and Tokyo have each rose 1.4% and 1.5% to 20251.62 and 10088.66 respectively. Shanghai and Shenzhen both rose 1.9% to 3435.212 and 1126.009. As of 9pm yesterday, Europe’s markets are generally rising, of which the FTSE in London has risen 0.1% to 4580.

Citigroup Equity Research expects the second-half performance of markets to be weaker than the second quarter. This is largely due to the continued mixed performance of exports in June. In particular, China’s exports continued to fall without any signs of improvement.