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Asian shares firm as investors square positions
European shares will likely pause, with financial spreadbetters predicting London's FTSE 100 .FTSE, Paris's CAC-40 .FCHI and Frankfurt's DAX.GDAXI will open down as much as 0.3 percent. A 0.2 percent drop in U.S. stock futures also hinted at a weaker Wall Street open. .L.EU.N
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outsid
"It just seems like one of those risk-on days where investors just pile onto stocks that they think will give them the most value," said Stan Shamu, market strategist at IG Markets.
Australian shares .AXJO added 0.6 percent to a fresh three-week high, aided by shares in mining and banks on firmer metals prices and a higher finish on Wall Street.
Shanghai shares .SSEC were up 0.9 percent and set for their first gain this week after slumping to their lowest in nearly four years earlier in the week, while Hong Kong .HSIshares rose 0.7 percent. Indian shares .BSESN moved up 0.8 percent to their highest in 19 months.
Amid unclear prospects for the U.S. budget talks and the apparently abating risk of an imminent Greece bankruptcy, investors sought trade incentives from data out of Asian countries on Friday and Saturday that could offer signals for the likely direction of global economic growth.
India's economy grew at a lower-than-expected annual 5.3 percent in the quarter ending in September, against analysts' forecast of 5.4 percent. Asia's third largest economy is still growing faster than many other major economies, but it has slowed from 6.5 percent in the 2011/12 fiscal year.
The data followed mixed reports from Japan, the world's third-largest economy, earlier in the day.
Japanese industrial output unexpectedly rose 1.8 percent in October, the first increase in four months, suggesting the negative impact of the global slowdown and a diplomatic row with China may have run its course.
But Japanese manufacturing activity contracted in November at the fastest pace in 19 months, according to a survey indicating it was hurt by falling exports, weak domestic demand and declining capital expenditure.
In South Korea, another big export-reliant economy, industrial output grew for a second month in a row in October, backing expectations for a recovery in the current quarter.
On Saturday, China will release the official manufacturing PMI for November, which is likely to show factory activity expanding at its fastest pace in seven months.
Japan's Nikkei stock average .N225 rose 0.5 percent to a seven-month closing high, posting its best month since February with a 5.8 percent gain. .T
Flows related to end-month demand drove the euro and the dollar higher against the yen. The dollar rose 0.3 percent to 82.36 yen, moving towards the 7-1/2-month high of 82.84 yen hit last week, while the euro jumped 0.6 percent to 107.12 yen, after hitting a seven-month high of 107.29 earlier.
"The market is subject to mood swings by investors who pay close attention to small developments in the U.S. budget talks, but as long as the yen does not rise far from current levels, we may see a slow but steady rise in the market," said Takuya Takahashi, an analyst at Daiwa Securities.
FISCAL SWINGS
Financial markets swung around on Thursday after comments by U.S. legislators dampened optimism that an agreement would be reached to avoid a series of tax hikes and spending cuts which could put the world's biggest economy back into recession.
The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Boehner, indicated no substantive progress over the last two weeks in talks to reach a budget deal, less than 24 hours after he said he was "optimistic" about reaching a pact.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid struck back, saying later his party was still waiting for a reasonable proposal from the Republicans.
"We are trading day-to-day based on the running drama over the fiscal cliff, and the market doesn't look very optimistic at the moment," said Carl Larry, a derivatives broker with Atlas Commodities in Houston.
London copper rose 0.3 percent to $7,924 a metric ton (1.1023 tons) and spot gold inched up 0.3 percent to $1,730.36 an ounce, but prices were on track for their biggest weekly drop since the start of November with the U.S. fiscal talks hurting sentiment.
Oil fell, with U.S. crude futures down 0.3 percent to $87.81 a barrel and Brent easing 0.1 percent to $110.67.
The euro was up 0.2 percent to $1.3004, below $1.3015 on Thursday, its highest level since October 31.
The euro has been supported after global lenders earlier in the week agreed to unblock more aid to debt-stricken Greece, pushing down Italy's 10-year bond yield to its lowest in two years at an auction on Thursday.
Reflecting a general caution despite rising equities, Asian credit markets were lackluster, keeping the spreads on the iTraxx Asia ex-Japan investment-grade index little changed.
(Additional reporting by Thuy Ong in Sydney, Ayai Tomisawa in Tokyo and Luke Pachymuthu in Singapore; Editing by Eric Meijer and Richard Borsuk)
Sensex rises after in-line GDP
(Reuters) - The rupee rose marginally, while stocks were broadly unchanged after the September quarter economic growth came in line with market estimates.
The Sensex extended gains to 0.5 percent from 0.3 percent before the data release.
The rupee was at 54.54/56 to the dollar against 54.61/64 previously.
The 10-year bond yield was at 8.17 percent, unchanged after the data. It was down 4 basis points after the central bank announced open market operations.
India's economy grew at a lower-than-expected 5.3 percent in the quarter ending in September, against analysts' forecast of 5.4 percent, government data showed on Friday.
Q2 GDP
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has released the estimates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the second quarter (July-September) Q2 of 2012-13, both at constant (2004-05) and current prices, alongwith the corresponding quarterly estimates of Expenditure components of the GDP.
MARKET EYE-BSE above 19,000; Goldman Sachs upgrades Indian stocks
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Technorati Tags: News
* The BSE index rises 0.83 percent, crossing 19,000
points for the first time since Oct. 5, while the NSE index
gains 0.77 percent.
* Gains track Asian shares that hit three-week highs on Thursday
as sentiment improved after a senior U.S. lawmaker said he was
"optimistic" on reaching a budget deal before the end of the
year to avoid a fiscal crisis.
* Traders say Moody's stable outlook on India has eased
potential ratings downgrade worries from S&P and Fitch in the
near term.
* On Thursday Goldman Sachs upgraded Indian stocks to
'overweight' from 'market-weight', citing growth recovery and
inflation moderation ahead. The investment bank pegged December
2013 Nifty target at 6,600 points.
* Leading the gains were mortgage lender HDFC, up 2.4
percent; ICICI Bank gains 1.4 percent while Tata
Motors is up 3.17 percent.
Gold sees mild recovery after big sell-off
Gold prices staged a mild rebound Thursday in Asia on relief buying after they were slammed overnight over a host of concerns, disregarding for the moment optimism over the U.S. fiscal-cliff talks that boosted other risk assets.
But analysts differed on the outlook for gold prices.
“The sell-off has shaken out many weaker buyers who will now be looking to sell the rallies rather than buy the dips,” said Fawad Razaqzada, a technical analyst at GFT Markets.
“We believe that such significant liquidation is unlikely to be repeated, and that gold prices will tend to stabilize above $1,700 [an ounce],” said James Steel, an analyst at HSBC Securities.
Gold’s most actively traded futures contract, meant for delivery in February GCG3 +0.20%, also climbed 0.3% to $1,723.20, while spot prices gained $1 to $1,720.80.
The advance came as the ICE dollar index DXY -0.04% , a gauge of the greenback’s moves against a basket of six other major currencies, was little changed at 80.268, compared with 80.262 in North American trade late Wednesday.
Gold investors also appeared to shrug off U.S. President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner’s optimism that lawmakers would reach an agreement to avert the fiscal cliff.
Uncertainty related to the cliff — a reference to the possibility that $600 billion worth of tax increases and spending cuts will kick in from January unless politicians reach an agreement — has tended to lure investors to gold’s safe-haven appeal in the recent past. A stronger dollar also usually hurts gold prices.
Among other metals, December futures for silver SIZ2 -0.01% and copper HGZ2 +0.28% rose 0.2% to $33.74 an ounce and 0.1% to $3.53 a pound, respectively.
Palladium futures PAZ2 -0.27% for delivery in the same month slipped 0.2% to $672 an ounce.
January platinum futures PLF3 -0.07% lost 0.2% to $1,608.60 an ounce.
New Home Sales in US
New Home Sales measures the annualized number of new single-family homes that were sold during the previous month. This report tends to have more impact when it's released ahead of Existing Home Sales because the reports are tightly correlated.
ACTUAL 368 K
FORECAST 390 K
PREVIOUS 389 K
Crude oil made new one-week low
Technorati Tags: News
Crude oil futures declined during European morning hours on Wednesday, trading near the lowest level in a week as a lack of progress in negotiations for a deal to avoid a U.S. budget crisis before a January deadline weighed on appetite for riskier assets.
Oil traders were focusing on closely-watched weekly supply data on U.S. stockpiles of crude and refined products from the U.S. Energy Information Administration later in the day.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude futures for delivery in January traded at USD86.95 a barrel during European morning trade, down 0.25% on the day.
New York-traded oil prices fell by as much as 0.3% earlier in the day to hit a session low of USD86.92 a barrel.
Markets participants continued to monitor developments surrounding the looming “fiscal cliff” in the U.S., approximately USD600 billion in automatic tax hikes and spending cuts due to come into effect on January 1.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid spooked investors Tuesday after saying that there had been “little progress” made toward reaching a deal by the end of the year.
There are fears the U.S. economy will fall back into a recession, unless a divided Congress and the White House can work out a compromise in the five weeks left before the January 1 deadline.
Doubts over the Greek debt deal also weighed on sentiment. Greece’s constitutional lenders reached an agreement Tuesday to reduce Greece’s debt-reduction target by EUR40 billion to 124% of gross domestic product by 2020.
But the lack of detail on how Greece will implement reforms needed to meet its new debt targets dented investor confidence.
The news prompted investors to shun riskier assets, such as stocks and commodities, and flock to traditional safe haven assets like the U.S. dollar.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.1% to trade at 80.47.
A stronger dollar makes U.S. commodities more expensive for importers holding other currencies.
Oil traders now looked ahead to weekly data from the U.S. government on oil supplies later in the day to gauge the strength of demand from the world’s largest oil consumer.
The report was expected to show that U.S. crude oil stockpiles increased by 0.3 million barrels last week, while gasoline inventories were forecast to rise by 0.85 million barrels.
After markets closed Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, said that U.S. crude inventories rose by 1.96 million barrels last week, while gasoline stocks increased 2.28 million barrels.
The U.S. is the world’s biggest oil consuming country, responsible for almost 22% of global oil demand.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for January delivery shed 0.3% to trade at USD109.58 a barrel, with the spread between the Brent and crude contracts standing at USD22.63 a barrel.
Dollar pushes higher vs. rivals ahead of U.S. data
The U.S. dollar was pushed higher against the other major currencies on Wednesday, ahead of the release of U.S. economic data, as concerns over Greece's ability to handle its new debt target and U.S. fiscal policy decisions continued to dominate.
During European afternoon trade, the dollar was higher against the euro, with EUR/USD shedding 0.42% to 1.2889.
Although international lenders agreed on a plan to cut Greek debt, which will allow the country to secure more financial aid and avoid a default, market scepticism grew over a lack of detail on how Athens will implement the reforms needed to meet its new targets.
Meanwhile, investors continued to monitor developments surrounding the looming “fiscal cliff” in the U.S., approximately USD600 billion in automatic tax hikes and spending cuts due to come into effect on January 1.
Sentiment weakened on Tuesday after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was frustrated by the lack of progress in talks over the U.S. budget impasse in Washington.
A Trader !!!
RECESSION CONTINUES IN GREECE
Greece will enter its seventh year of recession in 2014 before the country’s economy begins to rebound in 2015, according to estimates in a report issued on Tuesday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which also urges support for the social groups that have been hit hardest by the crisis.
While the European Union projects a return to growth for Greece in 2014, the OECD expects the country’s economy to shrink in 2014 by 1.3 percent, “due mostly to fiscal retrenchment,” revising its earlier estimate for growth of 0.2 percent. It expects a 4.5 percent contraction in GDP next year.
“If growth proves lower than assumed in the government’s fiscal plans, then the automatic stabilizers should be allowed to operate, even if this means missing the set targets,” the report states. “The most vulnerable strata will have to be protected from any further social cuts,” it adds.
The OECD sees public debt rising to 189 percent of GDP next year and to 195 percent in 2014 unless additional debt reduction measures are taken, from 177 percent this year. The report was drafted before the Eurogroup decision on Monday that eased Greece’s loan terms.
The budget deficit is expected to end up at 6.9 percent this year and drop to 4.6 percent in two years’ time. The current account deficit is seen dropping to 2.3 percent in 2014 from 5.5 percent this year, while exports are expected to grow by 6.1 percent by 2014 and imports to shrink by 3.2 percent.
The report adds that unemployment will continue to break one record after another and acknowledges that the economy suffered additional pressures this year owing to the tough but absolutely necessary fiscal adjustment process that has led to a reduction of salaries, trust and external demand.
The rebound is connected with the strengthening of international commerce, the restoration of confidence in Greece and the recovery of the country’s competitiveness. The OECD also sees a key role in the implementation of the structural measures that include the aggressive combating of tax evasion, an improvement in the efficiency of public administration, a lifting of market barriers and the opening up of competition.
Good China data, untraded shares slam market
Yet again, the Shanghai Composite Index CN:000001 -0.89% headed to fresh multiyear lows Wednesday, trading 0.8% lower in the early afternoon after ending the morning at its lowest intraday level since January 2009.
Wednesday’s weakness follows Tuesday’s upbeat data showing profits at large industrial companies jumped 20.5% in October from a year earlier, as investors worried the numbers made it less likely that Beijing would offer credit-stimulus measures to support the economy in the immediate future.
Uwe Parpart, chief strategist at Reorient Financial in Hong Kong, said another big factor weighing on the market included concerns that untraded shares in state-owned corporations could soon be released to the public.
“It is the equivalent of a monetary overhang that could, at any given time, be released into the market, so it’s like a Damocles sword hanging,” he said.
Unlikely most other major stock markets, retail investors dominate in China in terms of their holdings in actively traded shares, while institutional investors are less prominent.
Parpart said this fact means China’s domestic market is more prone to crowd psychology and thus more vulnerable to selling pressure in spite of convincing data showing conditions are stabilizing.
Parpart wasn’t convinced the crowd was right, however, saying the Shanghai market was “a very compelling buying opportunity right now,” despite its downward trajectory.
U.S. declines to name China currency manipulator
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
By Anna Yukhananov
WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 28, 2012 6:45am IST
(Reuters) - The Obama administration said on Tuesday that China's currency remained "significantly undervalued," but stopped short of labeling the world's second-biggest economy a currency manipulator.
Although Beijing controls the pace at which the yuan can rise, the U.S. Treasury said in a congressionally mandated semi-annual report that China did not meet the legal requirements to be deemed a currency manipulator.
The label is largely symbolic, but would require Washington to open discussions with Beijing on adjusting the yuan's value.
It has been 18 years since the U.S. Treasury has designated any country a manipulator. China was labeled a manipulator between 1992 and 1994.
The latest report reflected both the administration's desire to maintain good relations with its top creditor and an attempt to keep up pressure for changes in China that could benefit the U.S. economy and mollify domestic critics.
The report noted that the yuan, also known as the renminbi, had risen 12.6 percent against the U.S. dollar in inflation-adjusted terms since June 2010. An official said it was up 9.7 percent on a nominal basis through Tuesday, when it closed at a record high.
The Treasury also said China had "substantially" reduced its intervention in foreign exchange markets since the third quarter of 2011 and had loosened capital controls.
"In light of these developments, Treasury has concluded that the standards ... have not been met with respect to China," it said. "Nonetheless, the available evidence suggests the renminbi remains significantly undervalued," the report added, echoing the Treasury's last assessment in May.
Ted Truman, a Treasury official under former President Bill Clinton, said it was important to keep a watchful eye on China's currency policy.
"We have the aftermath of 10 years of misbehavior," said Truman, who is now with the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "It would probably be unwise and too soon to declare victory."
During the U.S. presidential campaign, Republican candidate Mitt Romney pledged to label China a manipulator on his first day in office to show he would be tougher on the chief U.S. economic competitor than President Barack Obama.
Many U.S. businesses and lawmakers complain that Beijing keeps the value of its currency artificially low to gain an advantage in trade at the expense of American jobs.
But an international consensus is growing that the yuan is closing in on its fair value after about a decade at an artificially weak level. The International Monetary Fund softened its language on the yuan in July.
YUAN AT RECORD HIGH
Signs of a recovery in the Chinese economy and a new round of quantitative easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve have led traders to push the yuan higher.
But China's central bank has kept a lid on the move. The central bank allows the yuan to rise or fall by only 1 percent from whatever rate it sets each day.
Charles Schumer, the No. 3 Democrat in the U.S. Senate and a longtime critic of China's yuan policy, said the Treasury passed up an opportunity to level the trade playing field.
"It's time for the Obama administration to rip off the band-aid, and force China to play by the same rules as all other countries," the New York senator said in a statement.
But the U.S.-China Business Council, which represents U.S. companies that do business with China, applauded the decision.
"The exchange rate has little to do with the U.S. trade balance or employment," council President John Frisbie said. "We need to move on to more important issues with China, such as removing market access barriers and improving intellectual property protection."
The Treasury said further appreciation of the yuan would help China balance its economy toward consumption by giving households greater purchasing power.
It called on China to reduce its "exceptionally high" foreign exchange reserves and publish data about its intervention in currency markets.
The Obama administration also used the currency report to keep pressure on South Korea to limit its foreign exchange intervention.
South Korea says it intervenes to smooth the volatility of its won currency, but it has gone into the market throughout 2012, the Treasury report said. In July, the IMF said the won was undervalued by up to 10 percent.
"We will continue to press the Korean authorities to limit their foreign exchange interventions to the exceptional circumstances of disorderly market conditions," the report said.
(Reporting by Anna Yukhananov, additional reporting by Doug Palmer and Lesley Wroughton; Editing by James Dalgleish, Dan Grebler and Andre Grenon)
U.S. stocks fall on fears debt talks have stalled
By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -0.69% declined 89.24 points, or 0.7%, to end at 12,878.13, with 23 of its 30 components in negative territory. Hewlett-Packard Co.HPQ -2.98% was the top decliner in the Dow, with its shares slumping 3%. See: Former Autonomy CEO challenges H-P.
“The dominant item on the market’s mind continues to be the fiscal cliff,” Brad Sorensen, director of market and sector analysis at the Charles Schwab Center for Financial Research, said of negotiations on Capitol Hill.
The market’s intensified decline came after Sen. Reid, the Nevada Democrat, expressed disappointment to reporters about the negotiations to avert billions in automatic spending cuts and tax hikes set to start in the new year. See: Senate fiscal-cliff bickering spooks market.
Reid also said he agrees with President Barack Obama that Social Security should not be part of a fiscal-cliff deal.
“The staffers are doing the legwork, while their bosses are trying to find the cameras,” Art Hogan, market strategist at Lazard Capital Markets, said of legislative efforts to reach a deficit-cutting deal.
“The good news is, we’ll build the case for equities while waiting for Washington to have a crisis of common sense,” he said.
The S&P 500 index SPX -0.52% shed 7.35 points, or 0.5%, to close at 1,398.94, with utilities the strongest performing sector and energy and financials the worst among the 10 major industry groups.
The Nasdaq Composite index COMP -0.30% dropped 8.99 points, or 0.3%, to end at 2,967.79, snapping a six-session winning streak.
Around 689 million shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Composite volume topped 3.3 billion.
Greece loan approved
In Europe, finance ministers reduced the rates on loans granted in the first financial rescue of Greece in mid-2010, while approving the next loan installment for the nation in December.
The step did little, however, for the euroEURUSD -0.0866% , which fell against other currencies, including the U.S. dollarDXY +0.02% .
The euro’s decline “likely reflects selling on the fact, with an agreement long expected and the euro-zone economic outlook still underwhelming,” wrote Nick Bennenbroek, head of currency strategy at Wells Fargo Bank.
Asia stocks decline as fiscal-cliff worries mount
By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Asia stocks slipped on Wednesday, with the health of the U.S. economy back on the agenda as investors looked toward January’s looming tax hikes and spending cuts.
The Nikkei Stock Average JP:100000018 -0.79% lost 0.8% in Tokyo trading, backing away from a seven-month high, while South Korea’s Kospi KR:SEU -0.83% fell 0.9% in Seoul, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index AU:XJO -0.29% declined 0.5% in Sydney.
The Hang Seng Index HK:HSI -0.84% fell 0.7% in Hong Kong, while the Shanghai Composite index CN:000001 -0.69% lost 0.4% after touching a four-year low in the previous session.
Investors in Chinese shares were concerned about the outlook for corporate profits. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Tuesday in the latest edition of its twice-yearly economic outlook that “inventory levels at Chinese companies have been rising, bringing the risk of destocking if falling profitability puts pressure on companies to raise cash.”
OECD Secretary-General Angel GurrĂa also warned that “the world economy is far from being out of the woods” and that “the U.S. ‘fiscal cliff,’ if it materializes, could tip an already weak economy into recession, while failure to solve the euro-area crisis could lead to a major financial shock and global downturn.” Read: OECD: Fiscal-cliff failure could trigger recession
U.S. stocks ended with losses Tuesday amid fresh concerns about the possibility of more than $600 billion of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts in January triggering weakness in the U.S. economy, as politicians continue to speak out about the issue.Read: U.S. stocks fall on fears debt talks have stalled
Tuesday saw Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid say that there had been “little progress” made toward reaching a deal by the end of the year. See full coverage of the upcoming "fiscal cliff".
The same concerns also hit the foreign-exchange market. BNP Paribas strategist Vassili Serebriako said that “clearly, as long as fiscal-cliff uncertainty is not resolved, the U.S. dollar is likely to see bouts of safe-haven demand.”
The ICE dollar index DXY +0.01% built on Tuesday strength during Asian trading hours Wednesday, reaching 80.405, from 80.344 in late North American trading. Read: Dollar gains after U.S. data, Greek deal
Gold futures, on the other hand, extended losses from Tuesday as the precious metal, along with other dollar-denominated commodities, reacted to the dollar’s strength. Read: Gold settles lower for a second straight session
Amid the weakness for commodity futures, energy firms fell in Hong Kong, with Cnooc Ltd. HK:883 -2.07% CEO -1.17% down 2.1% and PetroChina Co. HK:857 -1.75% PTR +0.17% lower by 1.4%.
Aluminium Corp. of China Ltd. ACH -1.30% HK:2600 -1.81% CN:601600 -0.64% declined by 1.5% in Hong Kong and by 0.4% in Shanghai, while Wuhan Iron & Steel Co.CN:600005 -4.69% lost 2% in mainland Chinese trading, and Angang Steel Co.CN:000898 -2.36% fell 1.8% in Shenzhen.
Metal firms also fell in Australia, with miner Rio Tinto Ltd. AU:RIO -1.89% RIO -1.93% down 2.1%, and rival BHP Billiton Ltd. AU:BHP -0.88% BHP -0.80% lower by 1.1%.
Mining services firm NRW Holdings Ltd. AU:NWH -17.22% tumbled 15.3% after flagging an expected fiscal-year revenue and margin reduction at its mining division.
Over in Tokyo, Japanese electronics firm Canon Inc. JP:7751 -2.37% CAJ -0.60% lost 2% after a Nikkei report that it is seeking to drastically shrink its consolidated inventory by the end of the year after its stocks hit a high in September not seen since 2008.
Fujitsu Ltd. JP:6702 -1.97% FJTSY 0.00% traded down 1.6% after a separate Nikkei report that it will allocate some 100 billion yen ($1.2 billion) to add needed capital to a pension fund at its U.K. unit.
Exporters were generally weak in Japanese trading Wednesday, as the yen remained in a tight range against the dollar and euro.
Major exporters had led much of the gains for the Japanese index over the past days, but Wednesday morning saw Pioneer Corp. JP:6773 -5.91% PNCOF -35.19% retreat 5.9%, while car maker Mazda Motor Corp. JP:7261 -2.34% MZDAF +7.45% lost 2.3%.
Sony Corp. JP:6758 -1.35% SNE -1.62% fell 1.1% amid a Reuters report that investment banks had approached the firm over the possible sale of its battery-making business.
In Seoul, technology firms also saw losses, with LG Electronics Inc. KR:066570 -2.60% LGEIY 0.00% down 2% and SK Hynix Inc. KR:000660 -0.39% HXSCL 0.00% down 1.8%.
SEC Charges Four India-Based Brokerage Firms with Violating U.S. Registration Requirements
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged four financial services firms based in India for providing brokerage services to institutional investors in the United States without being registered with the SEC as required under the federal securities laws.
The four firms – Ambit Capital Private Limited, Edelweiss Financial Services Limited, JM Financial Institutional Securities Private Limited, and Motilal Oswal Securities Limited – agreed to pay more than $1.8 million combined to settle the SEC’s charges.
Hollande threatens ‘nationalisation’ of French Mittal plant
“The nationalisation is part of the subjects of the discussion,” Hollande told a joint press conference with Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo, adding that this would apply only to the Florange plant and “in no way the entire group”.
“I will meet in a few minutes with Mr. Mittal to see what answer he can give us in respect to this requirement for us to keep the site as it is today,” Hollande said.
“I will give you the answer when I have myself obtained it, but our will is to ensure that the entire site is sustainable,” he said.
France has threatened to temporarily nationalise the Florange plant, where Mittal has given the government until Saturday to find a buyer for two shuttered blast furnaces.
The government says it has two offers, but only for the entire Florange site including other facilities which Mittal wants to retain and keep operating.
Mittal has refused to sell the full operation and warned that nationalisation of the Florange facilities would threaten the viability of all of its activities across France, where it employs 20,000 people.