Asian stocks mixed as world markets firm

HONG KONG—Asian stocks were mixed on Tuesday, despite impressive gains at the start of the week and a positive lead from Wall Street.

Tokyo finished 0.23 percent, or 21.02 points, up at 9,107.43 and Seoul added a whopping 4.83 percent, or 86.56 points, to 1,879.87, after a public holiday on Monday.

Hong Kong closed 0.24 percent, or 48.02 points, lower at 21,212.08 and Shanghai was down 0.71 percent, or 18.60 points, at 2,608.17. Sydney was 0.86 percent, or 35.6 points, off, closing at 4,247.3.

Mumbai ended 0.65 percent down, its third day of losses, with the Sensex index falling 108.69 points to 16,730.94, a 14-month-low.

India’s annual inflation slowed to 9.22 percent in July but economists said the fact it remained near double digits made further interest rate hikes likely despite global economic uncertainty.

Asia’s main bourses had recorded a very strong start to the week after a turbulent few days that had seen big falls, with traders scrambling to follow almost any lead.

The gains were picked up by Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average leaped 1.90 percent; the S&P 500 added 2.18 percent, and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite gained 1.88 percent.

Wall Street’s gains – the third straight session in which the market ended up – came as global investors cheered a move by Google to buy Motorola Mobility Holdings.

But despite a positive day on Monday, Europe was unable to sustain its upwards momentum, with the region’s main markets all falling ahead of a key eurozone crisis meeting on Tuesday.

Frankfurt’s DAX 30 index of leading shares slumped 2.71 percent to 5,859.07 points and the Paris CAC 40 dropped 2.24 percent to 3,166.60 points, while London’s FTSE 100 slid 1.46 percent to 5,272.97 points.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will host German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Paris to produce a road map for the 17-nation bloc as it battles its growing sovereign debt problems.

Markets have been watching anxiously to see whether they will agree a plan to boost fragile confidence after trillions of dollars were wiped off stock markets over the past fortnight as investors dumped shares over concerns of a global slowdown, eurozone debt, and a US credit rating downgrade.

Before the key meeting, Germany announced slower-than-expected 0.1-percent economic growth in the second quarter, while Spain also said its economy slowed to 0.2 percent growth.

Despite two days of gains, the outlook for the Tokyo bourse remains uncertain, with investors still fretting over a painfully strong yen, which is threatening to dampen Japan’s recovery from its March 11 quake and tsunami disaster.

A strong currency hits exporters by making their goods more expensive overseas and eroding repatriated profits.

On the forex market, the yen remained at near post-WWII highs against the dollar, standing at 76.74 in Tokyo, little changed from 76.83 yen in New York Monday evening.

The euro fell against the dollar and the yen on the disappointing German data.

The common currency slipped to $1.4381 from $1.4440 in New York overnight and to 110.41 yen from 110.95 following the release of the data.

Japanese shares remained attractive, with about 65 percent of the Tokyo market’s first section shares trading under book value, said Hiroichi Nishi, general manager at SMBC Nikko Securities.

Google’s announcement brightened sentiment, but worries about the US economic outlook remained, Nishi said.

“While the (merger-and-acquisition) news served as a positive catalyst, we still need to keep our eyes on US economic indicators,” he added, citing weaker-than-expected data on New York-area manufacturing activity.

Japan on Monday announced its economy shrank an annualized 1.3 percent in the April-June quarter following the March disasters, far better than market expectations of a 2.7 percent contraction.

Qantas was an upwards mover on the Australian market as traders welcomed a major restructuring plan unveiled by the airline, with its shares pushing 0.78 percent higher to Aus$1.54.

Oil prices dipped, with New York’s main contract, West Texas Intermediate crude for delivery in September, down 62 cents to $87.26 a barrel in afternoon trade.

Brent North Sea crude for September was down 49 cents to $109.42.

Gold closed at $1,779.50-$1,780.50 an ounce, up from up from its Monday close of $1,744-$1,745. It opened at $1,766-$1,767.

In other markets:

— Wellington closed up 0.65 percent, or 21.11 points, at 3,273.75.

Fletcher Building, which announces its annual results on Wednesday, rose 0.4 percent to NZ$7.73, while Telecom Corp lifted 3.1 percent to NZ$2.625 and Air New Zealand slipped 0.9 percent to NZ$1.10.

— Taipei fell 0.27 percent, or 20.80 points, to 7,798.59.

Taiwan Cement was 2.96 percent higher at Tw$45.25 while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co lost 1.20 percent at Tw$66.0.

— Manila added 0.92 percent, or 40.07 points, to 4,372.70.

Top-traded Jollibee Foods Corp. gained 0.23 percent to 83.30 pesos. Alliance Global Group Inc. rose 2.33 percent to 11.42 pesos, while Lepanto Consolidated Mining saw its “A” shares fall 0.66 percent to 1.50 pesos.

— Singapore fell 1.45 percent, or 41.67 points, to close at 2,832.73.

Asian media giant Singapore Press Holdings was down 0.53 percent to Sg$3.75 and Singapore Airlines declined 0.27 percent to Sg$11.15.

— Kuala Lumpur ended down 0.10 percent, or 1.50 points, to close at 1,498.24.

YTL Corp. lost 2.1 percent to 1.39 ringgit. Gamuda inched down 1.8 percent to 3.25. Axiata Group gained 0.4 percent to 4.98 ringgit.

— Jakarta lost 0.17 percent, or 6.74 points, to 3,953.27.

Indosat slid 5.2 percent to 5,450 rupiah, Telkom lost 0.7 percent to 7,200 rupiah, while Bank Danamon fell 1.8 percent to 5,400 rupiah.

— Bangkok fell 0.86 percent, or 9.30 points, to 1,077.02.

Banpu lost 0.88 percent to 678 baht, while PTT lost 1.22 percent to 323 baht.