Market Update
Asian markets trended lower in thin trade Tuesday and in a holiday-shortened week as a number of bourses returned after the Easter break.
The Nikkei fell 0.6%. The Shanghai Composite fell 0.7% while the Hang Seng declined 0.3%. The Sensex hit a fresh record in opening trade for the second straight session and was up 0.1% at the time of writing. The All Ordinaries added 0.4%.
The All Ordinaries will close on Friday for ANZAC Day.
The yen remained weak after the trade deficit figures released Monday, helping shares of some exporters. At the time of writing, the yen was at 102.60 to the dollar.
Stocks on the Move
Sony was down 1.6% while Panasonic and Canon gave up about half a percent each. Olympus rose 2.2%.
Among the gainers, Bridgestone Corp. was up 2.6% while Japan Steel Works strengthened 2.9%.
Credit Saison was up over 4% in the morning after a rating upgrade but swung to losses and was down 1.5%.
Yaskawa Electric was a big loser, down over 5%.
In China, Song Lin, the chairman of China Resources Corp. was stripped of his position as an investigation began into a corruption scandal, according to state media reports. The state-owned Xinhua News Agency reported Lin was sacked due to serious violations of the law and party regulations.
The CRC group of stocks all traded lower with China Resources Power Holdings down about 10% and China Resources Gas 3.4% lower. China Resources Enterprise fell 4.8%.
Telecom equipment major ZTE Corp. gained 2.8% after the company reported a doubling in first-quarter net profit. IOts mainland listed shares were up 0.7%.
Tencent Holdings was down about half a percent.
In Mumbai, TCS edged up 0.3% a day after the company struck an agreement with Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. to form a software services company.
Gail India was the top gainer, up 2.8%, followed by ONGC, up 1.8%, and RIL, up 1.6%. L&T gained 1.3% while HDFC Bank was up a percent.
In Sydney, Woodside climbed 2% while Atlas Iron gained a percent.
Gold miner Newcrest fell 2.3%.