Despite a positive lead from Wall Street, Asian markets are mostly seen struggling on Monday with investors mostly treading cautiously ahead of quarterly results. A few markets in the region got off to a fairly steady start, but gave up most of their early gains due to lack of support at higher levels.
Mining stocks are seeing some heavy selling in the Australian market. Financial, energy, healthcare and consumer discretionary stocks are trading mixed, while information technology stocks are faring reasonably well.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index, which declined to 4,779.7 after edging up to 4,805.6 in early trades, is currently down 20.5 points or 0.4% at 4,781. The broader All Ordinaries index is down 19.6 points or 0.4% at 4,889.
Rio Tinto, Newcrest Mining and Fortescue Metals are trading notably lower, and BHP Billiton is down with a modest loss. Aquarius Platinum, Oz Minerals and Sims Metal Management are also down in negative territory.
Qantas Airways, Caltex Australia, Primary Healthcare, Suncorp Group, Transfield Services, Dexus Property Group and Westfield Retail Trust are all down with notable losses.
Meanwhile, Maquarie Group, Sonic Healthcare, ING Office Fund, Crown and James Hardie Industries are trading notably higher.
Bell Financial Group is trading 3% up despite an announcement from the company that unaudited net profit after tax for the year to December 31 was about A$21.5 million, down 21% from the audited net profit of A$27.3 million in the previous year.
On the economic front, a gauge measuring consumer price inflation in Australia rose at a slower pace in December. The TD Securities-Melbourne Institute Monthly Inflation Gauge rose 0.2%, following a 0.4% increase in November. The trimmed mean of the inflation gauge, which strips out volatile price changes, rose by 0.3% in December, following a similar increase in the prior month.
On a year-over-year basis, the inflation gauge rose 3.8%, following a 3.9% rise in the previous month. This is the fifth consecutive month that the gauge has been at or above the upper band of the Reserve Bank of Australia's inflation target of 2-3%.
According to the data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, motor vehicle sales in Australia were up a seasonally adjusted 0.8% in December at 85,906, compared to the upwardly revised 0.5% increase in November. On an annual basis, new motor vehicle sales were down 3.1% following the upwardly revised 0.8% decline in the previous month.
In the currency market, the Australian dollar opened lower and was quoting at around US$0.9908 in early trades, down from Friday's close of US$0.9967. The Australian dollar is currently trading at 0.9872 to the U.S dollar.
The Japanese market is trading higher with investors tracking gains posted by stocks on Wall Street last Friday. A weaker yen is also contributing to the fairly buoyant mood in the market.
Real estate, land transport, mining and non-ferrous metal stocks are mostly trading firm. Banking, automobile, gas, shipbuilding, rubber products and pharmaceuticals stocks are exhibiting a mixed trend.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index, which advanced to 10,562.40 following a bright start, was up 37.70 points or 0.36% at 10,536.74 at the end of the morning session.
Pioneer Corp, the biggest gainer in the Nikkei index currently, is up nearly 5%. Sumco Corp., Marui Group, Nippon Light Metals, Pacific Metals, Japan Tobacco, GS Yuasa, Toshiba Corp., Advantest and Dowa Holdings are trading higher by 2%-4.75%.
Aeon, Nippon Soda, Nisshin Steel, Japan Steel Work, NTT Docomo, Yamato Holdings, Credit Saison, Inpex and Mitsubishi Electric are among the other prominent gainers.
Among automobile stocks Hino Motors, Isuzu Motors, Honda Motor and Toyota Motor are trading firm, while Suzuki Motor and Mazda Motor are down with notable losses.
Among bank stocks, Shinsei Bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial are trading in positive territory, while Sumitomo Trust & Banking, Chiba Bank and Shizuoka Bank are exhibiting weakness.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan governor Masaaki Shirakawa has stated that the economy shows signs of a recovery but added that the improvement is slow.
Speaking at a quarterly meeting of Bank of Japan branch managers, the governor said "the economy is expected to continue improving at a slower pace for some time and then return to a gradual recovery track." Shirakawa noted that the decline in the consumer price index continues to slow, and added that the price gauge will continue to decline, but at an ever-slowing pace.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded marginally below 83 yen in early deals in Tokyo. The yen is currently trading at 82.90 to the U.S. dollar.
Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Shanghai and Taiwan are down with notable losses. Hong Kong, Indonesia and New Zealand are also trading weak, while Malaysia and South Korea are up with modest gains. Singapore is trading flat. Markets across the region ended on a mixed note on Friday.
On Wall Street, stocks shrugged off early weakness and posted solid gains on Friday with investors turning bullish on the back of strong quarterly results from Intel and JP Morgan Chase. While the Chinese government's latest move to curb growth and a mixed batch of U.S. economic data hurt sentiment early on in the session, upbeat results and guidance from JP Morgan and Intel helped reverse the trend as the session progressed.
The major averages finished at or near their best levels of the day. The Dow advanced 55.5 points or 0.5% to 11,787.4, the Nasdaq moved up 20 points or 0.7% to 2,755.3, and the S&P 500 ended up 9.5 points at 1,293.2.
Major European markets ended on a mixed note on Friday. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index slid 0.4%, while the French CAC 40 index saw a gain of 0.2%, and the German DAX index closed just above the unchanged line.
Crude oil prices surged higher on Friday, buoyed by earnings optimism on Wall Street that outweighed demand worries. Light, sweet crude for February delivery ended up 14 cents or 0.05% at US$91.54 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com