Market Update
Asian markets were mostly higher Tuesday with the Nikkei looking on course to snap a four-session losing run.
The Nikkei was up 0.8%. The Shanghai Composite was unchanged while the Hang Seng was up 0.6%. The Sensex gave up early gains and traded flat. The All Ordinaries moved ahead 0.4%.
Elsewhere in the region, Thailand's benchmark SET index fell after the Royal Thai Army imposed martial law even as the Army chief sought to reassure the nation this was not a coup.
Moody's said the BJP-led NDA's victory in the Indian elections was credit positive for India.
Stocks on the Move
Textile major Sanyo Shokai was down about 12% after the company said it would be discontinuing its licensing contract with Burberry as the British company is planning to launch its own sales operations in the Japanese market. The licensing agreement has been in place since 1970.
Staying with contracts, Fujitsu was up about 3% on news Airbus has selected the Japanese company as its solution provider for their RFID Integrated Labels project. In this project, Airbus will attach Fujitsu RFID tags to major aircraft components.
Shares in Yahoo Japan surged over 13% after the company canceled plans to acquire eAccess from Softbank Corp. Softbank shares were up 0.4%.
Toshiba was up 1.5%. The Nikkei reported that Toshiba is to supply chips to Google for its smartphone with interchangeable modules expected next year.
Some other heavyweights such as Sony and Fanuc both traded 0.2% lower each.
Tencent Holdings was among the big movers in Hong Kong, up 3.8%. Kingsoft Corp. gained 4% while Kingdee International Software added 3.2%.
Lenders ICBC, Bank of Communications, and China CITIC Bank were all up about half a percent.
Property counters mostly remained weak after news yesterday of cooling prices in April. Poly Property Group was down 1.5% while Vanke Property Overseas edged down 0.1%.
China Unicom fell 2.9% while China Telecom gave up 1.5% after the latter reported a sharp drop in April subscriber numbers. China Mobile gained 2.3%.
Earlier today, the Sensex extended its winning streak to a fourth straight session as power stocks, capital goods, banks, and public sector stocks all rallied. However, the markets were flat at the time of writing.
Tata Steel strengthened 3.2% while SSLT was up 2.9%. Infosys and Wipro were up over 2% each while Dr. Reddy’s, Hindalco, HDFC, TCS, ITC, and Airtel all gained in a range between a percent and 1.9%.
In Sydney, Treasury Wine Estates surged 18.7% after it rejected a takeover bid from U.S. private equity firm KKR.
Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia is set to debut on the Sydney market in the exchange’s biggest IPO this year.