Asian Stocks Rise on Japan; Ringgit Slips While Gas Gains

by **Cals** Mon 30 Dec 2013, 09:29

Asian Stocks Rise on Japan; Ringgit Slips While Gas Gains

By Emma O’Brien and Yoshiaki Nohara Dec 30, 2013 8:57 AM GMT+080

Most Asian stocks climbed as Australian shares gained and Japanese indexes extended rallies after the yen touched a five-year low versus the dollar. Malaysia’s ringgit slipped while natural gas futures advanced.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.1 percent by 9:53 a.m. in Tokyo, as more than three stocks rose for each that declined. Japan’s Topix Index climbed a fourth day, headed for the highest close since 2008 while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 0.5 percent. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures rose 0.1 percent. The yen slipped to 105.35 per dollar after weakening every day last week and the ringgit lost 0.2 percent. Palladium rose a fourth day while gas futures gained 0.5 percent.

The Asia Pacific gauge has risen more than 2 percent since Dec. 17, when the Federal Reserve announced the first cut to its record stimulus program amid an improving economy. The U.S. is projected to post the first monthly increase in pending home sales since May today while China’s premier said deepening reforms will keep the economy stable. Iron-ore shipments from Australia, the biggest exporter of the raw material, are being curbed after a cyclone closed ports in the nation’s northwest.

“Market conditions won’t deteriorate much with the U.S. economy being positive,” Hitoshi Asaoka, a Tokyo-based senior strategist at Mizuho Trust & Banking Co., a unit of Japan’s third-largest bank by market value, said by phone.

The number of contracts Americans signed to buy previously-owned homes probably rose 1 percent in November from October, after falling the previous five months, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists before today’s report. Tomorrow’s S&P Case-Shiller Composite 20-city home price index is projected to have risen 13.45 percent from a year earlier in October, after gaining 13.29 percent in the previous month.

Korean Output

South Korea’s Kospi Index (KOSPI) lost 0.1 percent, trimming its advance in 2013 to 0.2 percent. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average in Japan, where it is the last day of trading until Jan. 6 today, climbed 0.3 percent, set for the highest close since November 2007.

Korean factory output contracted a more-than-estimated 1.3 percent from a year earlier in November, after expanding 3 percent in the previous month, data today showed. Hong Kong’s export growth slowed to 5.5 percent last month, from 8.8 percent in October, a Bloomberg survey of economists before data due today showed. The Philippines and Thailand are closed for holidays.

The yen dropped as much as 0.2 percent to 105.37 per dollar, the weakest intraday price since Oct. 6, 2008. The currency has weakened 18 percent versus the greenback this year, the second-worst performance among 16 major currencies behind a 20 percent slump in South Africa’s rand.

The ringgit slipped to 3.2928 per dollar after ending last week little changed. The currency is down 7.1 percent this year.

Chinese Rates

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said the nation has the conditions to keep the economy and its financial markets stable in 2014, according to a statement on the government’s website posted yesterday. The country will implement a prudent monetary policy and maintain “appropriate liquidity,” Li said during a Dec. 27 visit to Tianjin, the statement showed.

China’s benchmark money-market rate will probably remain around a record high in the coming quarter as policy makers seek to reduce debt, according to a survey of analysts and traders conducted by Bloomberg. The seven-day repurchase rate, which retreated last week from more than 7 percent, will average 4.5 percent, the median of 11 estimates shows, close to the all-time high of 4.65 percent recorded over the three months that started Oct. 1.

Hang Seng

Bullish options on the Hang Seng Index rose to a three-year high last week, according to one-month data compiled by Bloomberg. Calls betting on a 5 percent increase in the gauge cost 0.4 point more than puts protecting against a 5 percent decline Dec. 24, the highest since July 2010, the data showed. The index is up 2.6 percent this year, after rallying 23 percent in 2012.

The S&P 500 closed down less than 0.1 percent Dec. 27, having advanced 1.3 percent in a second consecutive week of gains. Economic reports last week showed orders for long-lasting goods in the U.S. climbed in November by the most in 10 months while jobless claims dropped more than economists anticipated in the most recent week analyzed.

Investors have added more than $3 trillion to the value of global stock markets since the start of the quarter amid mounting confidence global economic growth is accelerating. The Fed announced after its Dec. 17-18 meeting that it would start reducing bond purchases aimed at boosting the U.S. economy.

Dubai’s DFM General Index fell 0.6 percent yesterday, snapping a four-day advance, while Israel’s TA-25 Index (TA-25) retreated 1.3 percent.

Turkish Slump

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index was little changed in early trading after halting a three-week decline to rally 0.9 percent, trimming its yearly drop to 5.5 percent. Turkey’s Borsa Istanbul 100 Index has slumped 21 percent in dollar terms this month, turning the nation’s stock market into the world’s worst performing as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan tussles with the judiciary.

MSCI’s Asia-Pacific gauge is headed for an 8.6 percent increase this year, down from 2012’s 14 percent advance and compared with a 29 percent jump in the S&P 500, the most since 1997.

Natural gas futures climbed today after dropping 0.3 percent last week in their first weekly drop since the start of November. Palladium increased 0.4 percent today while platinum slipped 0.2 percent.

Cyclone Upgraded

West Texas Intermediate oil fell 0.1 percent to $100.24 a barrel after breaching $100 Dec. 27 for the first time in two months. A U.S. government report last week showed that supplies in the world’s biggest energy consuming nation slipped to the lowest level since September in the week to Dec. 20. Brent crude futures were little changed at $112.23.

U.S. crude prices will probably remain around $90 to $100 a barrel, Harold Hamm, chief executive officer of Continental Resources Inc., said in an interview with the Financial Times. WTI is up 7.8 percent in 2013, after dropping 1.2 percent in 2012.

Tropical Cyclone Christine was upgraded to a Category 3 storm by Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology and is expected to hit landfall today or tomorrow. Port Hedland, the country’s largest iron-ore export terminal, was shut down yesterday along with the port of Dampier. Port Hedland exports ore from mines owned by BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), the world’s biggest mining company, along with Fortescue Metals Group Ltd.

To contact the reporters on this story: Emma O’Brien in Wellington at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]; Yoshiaki Nohara in Tokyo at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]