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Employees of the Tokyo Stock Exchange work at the bourse in Tokyo. The Nikkei Stock Average yesterday climbed 0.7% to finish at 9648.98 |
Greece’s debt troubles, which have worried investors around the globe for months, remain in focus amid uncertainty about this week’s vote in the Greek parliament on austerity measures.
“The equity markets are very cautious, but at the moment [there is] steady acceptance of the view that the Greek vote will support these changes because [of the] limited alternatives,” said Jamie Spiteri, head of trading at Shaw Stockbroking in Sydney.
“I think the markets have the capacity to improve once [there is] some clarity on how it’s going to be managed, but I don’t see a rapid recovery. It’ll be a subdued, modest recovery in the market,” said Spiteri.
Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average climbed 0.7% to finish at 9648.98. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.3% to 4474.30 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index inched up 0.1% to 22,061.78.
China’s Shanghai Composite, after rising in the past five sessions, overcame pressure to lock in profits and ended little changed.
South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.4% and Taiwan’s Taiex slipped 0.3%.
The region’s broad advance came in the wake of overnight gains on Wall Street and after French President Nicolas Sarkozy backed a plan to extend the maturity of Greek bonds due in coming years to share the burden of a new aid package with private investors.
Some banking stocks around the region rose, with Westpac Banking Corp gaining 1.7% in Sydney, heavyweight HSBC Holdings adding 0.4% in Hong Kong, KB Financial Group rising 0.4% in Seoul and United Overseas Bank up 0.2% in Singapore.
In Japan, many exporters finished higher, with Canon Inc adding 0.8% and Fanuc Ltd rising 2.6%.
Panasonic Corp climbed 1.2% after the Nikkei reported the firm will cut subsidiary Sanyo Electric Co’s work force by more than 10,000 employees globally this year.
Nippon Steel Corp climbed 2.0% after the Nikkei reported the steelmaker has agreed with Nissan Motor Co to raise steel-sheet prices by 15%, and that its talks with Toyota Motor Co were under way.
The two automakers underperformed, with Nissan losing 2.4%, while Toyota edged up 0.2%.
In Hong Kong, shares of China Yurun Food Group gave up 5.9%, on top of Monday’s 19.8% plunge, amid several media reports citing market speculation that research house Muddy Waters, described in some reports as a short seller, may issue a report on the company.
Many stocks in the resources sector also rose in line with a bounce in some commodities after a weak streak recently.
PetroChina Co climbed 1.4% in Hong Kong and Jiangxi Copper Co added 0.7% in Shanghai.
But some analysts said the cautious tone prevailing in the marketplace was likely to linger.
“The downgrading of US growth forecasts, coupled with the ebb and flow of sentiment over Greece ahead of a key parliamentary vote on an austerity plan, and slower factory output growth in China indicates the metals markets will remain cautious in the short term, and rallies will be sold,” Robin Bhar, commodities analyst at Credit Agricole, wrote in a note to clients.
Bhar was referring to the US Federal Reserve’s economic-growth revision and recent Chinese manufacturing data.