Asian Summary on 27032009

Stocks mixed, off their early peaks, but overall it was a more encouraging week for equities; auto and tech stocks rose, plus there was some further quarter and fiscal year-end buying noted. Nikkei off just 0.1%, Kospi off 0.5%, Taiwan +0.1%, Aussie shares +0.7%, Shanghai Composite +0.7%, HSI off 0.5%, STI down 0.9%.

FX majors fairly well behaved with some JPY-buying related to end-year repatriation; USD/JPY at 98.14 late, EUR/JPY at 133.36, EUR/USD 1.3585.

Japan Feb core CPI flat Y/Y vs 0.1% fall tipped, overall CPI down 0.1% Y/Y, down 0.3% M/M; Tokyo area March core CPI +0.4% Y/Y, as tipped, overall CPI +0.2% Y/Y, +0.3% M/M. Feb Japan retail sales down 5.8% Y/Y, sharpest fall since February 2002. Korea revised 4Q GDP showed 5.1% fall Q/Q vs 5.6% drop initially, 3.4% contraction Y/Y, same as first forecast. NZD ticked higher on data there: NZ 4Q GDP down 0.9% Q/Q vs revised 0.5% contraction in 3Q, biggest quarterly decline since September 1992, though slightly less than 1.0% contraction tipped; GDP down 1.9% Y/Y, in line with forecasts. February trade surplus NZ$489 million vs revised deficit of NZ$104 million in January, NZ$173 million gap tipped; mostly due to biggest slump in imports in 16 years. PBOC put out yet another essay which criticized the U.S. in runup to G20 meeting, focusing on what it deemed an insufficient financial regulatory system. Vietnam 2008 GDP grew 6.18%, vs 6.23% earlier estimate, with government tipping GDP +4.8%-5.6% this year, after estimating growth of 3.1% on-year in 1Q. May Nymex crude off 67 cents.(RXM)


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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 27, 2009 02:17 ET (06:17 GMT)