Asian Markets Review – September 2nd 2010

US Data Fueled Asian Rallies

Improving global sentiment triggered by the latest ISM data for the US manufacturing sector boosted Asian shares on Thursday. Nikkei 225 Average was up 135.82 points to end 1.52% higher at 9,062.84, Hang Seng index jumped higher to 20,868.92 or 1.19%, while Shanghai Composite ended at 2,655.78 or up 1.25%.

Top gainers from Japan were Kyocera Corp. with 3.30% gains at ¥7,510, Nissan Motor Co. at ¥664 with 2.95% gains, and Nikon Corp. at ¥1,434 (+2.58%). Toyota and Nintendo were losing out with 0.25% and 0.26% declines.

Sony’s Qriocity was unveiled and aimed at facing competition with Apple in video and music streaming services. The services will be available this fall in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and England. Qriocity will be accessible via Sony’s Bravia TV, Playstation 3, Blu-ray DVD player, and also Vaio PCs. Analysts were not excited with the product, citing that Sony still has a lot of catching up with Apple’s recently unveiled similar services yesterday by Steve Jobs. Sony ended at ¥2,427, up 2.19%.

US vehicle sales data revealed that Toyota sales were down 34% year-on-year in August, while Honda’s sales fell 33%, and Nissan’s declined 27%. Asian branded autos fell 29% overall in August, worse than US branded ones which slumped 14%. The August sales figures were the lowest in the last 28 years due to worries over a double dip recession in the US. Toyota ended the day at ¥2,850, Honda Motor at ¥2,859 (+1.85%).

In Hong Kong, Ping An Insurance resumed trading after being suspended since June 30th as it acquired Shenzhen Development Bank. Ping An jumped 2.7% to HK$66.10, boosting the Hang Seng index performance.

Esprit Holdings reported a net profit of HK$4.23 billion for the fiscal year ending June 2010. The figure was less than the expected HK$4.44 billion and was 11% lower than the same period last year. Esprit fell 2.82% by the end of the day at HK$43.00.

China Mobile underperformed on Thursday as the uncertainties surrounding Vodafone’s planned sale of China Mobile’s 3.2% stakes lingered. China Mobile advanced only 0.76% towards HK$79.80.

CITIC Pacific, China Shenhua, and China Overseas Land & Investment posted significant gains today: 4.41%, 3.31%, and 3.09%, respectively. Stuck at the red zone along with Esprit Holdings, China Resources fell 0.4% as well as Cheung Kong Infrastructure which declined 0.25%.