On the whole a positive session for Asia with the Hang Seng probably the stand-out performer on the day. Closing up almost 2% gains were led by financials, bouncing after yesterdays nerves, but also a strong performer were energy/chemicals and property sector’s with Country Garden (+5.6%) and China Petro-Chem (+3.7%). Shanghai market remains closed for […]

Yesterdays enthusiasm could not be sustained in such thin volume and so it was with HSBC’s earnings miss that returns the fear! The Nikkei took much of the steam and consequently returned 1% of its recent gains. The finance sector was heavy probably responding to HSBC’s worries as most of Asia watched their shares decline […]

Even though much of Asia remain on holidays celebrating the New Year, we did see the impressive broad based rally continue. The Nikkei rose another 2% and with commodities improving also, that helped the Australian ASX. The Yen drifted back to the mid 106’s and that helped the exporters push the Nikkei. This has been […]

  Most of Asia are closed due to holidays and so it was left to Japan to reflect Wall Streets strength. The Nikkei closed with a positive return of 1.2% for the day. The news that BOJ Governor Kuroda, is to sit for another term was taken as positive news as he supports continued easing. […]

Most of the talk in Asia centred around the strength of the Yen as it rose to a 15 month high. This hurt exporters but the effects on the Nikkei was negligible as the index rose 1.5% on the day. Unfortunately, the economic data release failed to support the market euphoria as we saw December […]

Ahead of a short week for China holidays and the release of US CPI data, it was no surprise we saw a mixed session in Asia. The Nikkei continued its bearish move with a decline today of -0.45%, briefly flirting with the 200 day MA but bouncing by the close of play. The Yen remains […]

Asia rallied, initially, with all core indices making solid progress in early trading following reflecting strong US markets. However, the Nikkei di not get into the mood opening lower and trending weaker into the close. Eventually finishing down -0.65% we saw a rush into the Yen against the USD also. Shanghai and the Hang Seng […]

It’s always a difficult trading environment when one large market is closed (Japan Monday), but following last weeks volatility we have seen a quiet bounce-back in quieter conditions. That bounce-back has been more visible in US futures than Asian cash even with the Shanghai closing +0.8% firmer today. The KOPSI (+0.9%) and SENSEX also enjoyed […]

Another weak session for Asia, but following the US close that was never going to be a surprise! All core traded heavy throughpout the day but China’s Shanghai index lost most reflecting a 4.05% decline. Financials, insurers and real-estate were pretty much to blame, but we can not rule out todays data release. Although the […]

  Shanghai was the only one to underperform the core with a 1.4% decline and a weaker currency market. The Trade numbers missed expectations and that was probably the key reason why the Yuan took the hit. Closing down over 1% (at 6.286) was its weakest move in over two years. The balance of Asian […]