Asian shares drift lower on Greece worries
HONG KONG—Asian markets ended lower in nervous trade on Monday as Greek officials scrambled to form a unity government and pick a new leader amid frantic efforts to keep the debt-ridden nation in the eurozone.
Tokyo fell 0.39 percent, or 34.31 points, to 8,767.09 and Sydney closed 0.18 percent, or 7.7 points, lower at 4,273.4, while Seoul fell 0.48 percent, or 9.31 points, to 1,919.10.
Hong Kong slipped 0.83 percent, or 164.90 points, to 19,677.89 and Shanghai was off 0.73 percent, or 18.49 points, at 2,509.80.
A new Greek prime minister and cabinet will be named after talks between outgoing Prime Minister George Papandreou and the conservative head of the opposition Antonis Samaras.
The historic power-sharing deal was reached in dramatic late-night talks Sunday after Papandreou agreed to quit. The embattled premier drew widespread criticism over plans to put a debt-bailout package to a national vote.
The move stunned fellow European leaders, sent global markets into a tailspin and earned him a humiliating dressing-down at a G20 summit in France. Papandreou hastily retracted the proposal.
However, it remained unclear whether news of a new leader in Athens would calm jittery markets as talks over how to fix the eurozone debt crisis have yielded little in the way of concrete details.
Fears the debt crisis will spread to Italy added to the downward pressure on markets amid warnings the country – which is also struggling with huge debts – could soon be unable to finance them as yields on government bonds rise.
Italian 10-year borrowing rates rose to a record 6.5 percent on the bond market in early European trade Monday.
“While there may be arrangements which are being broadcast by the major political heads across Europe, they’ve still got to execute on that,” said Jamie Spiteri, equities dealer at Shaw Stockbroking in Sydney.
Hideyuki Ishiguro, supervisor of investment strategy at Okasan Securities, said that with eurozone finance ministers set to meet later in the day “the focus will likely shift to rising Italian bond yields.”
Officials are also expected to discuss whether to release an eight billion euro ($11 billion) slice of bailout cash that Greece’s finance minister has said was crucial to keep the nation afloat.
European leaders had become increasingly frustrated at the political impasse in Athens at a time when they want to press ahead with hard-won agreements reached in late October on tackling the eurozone’s fiscal woes.
The new government will be tasked with implementing the terms of an October EU bailout deal that calls for further harsh austerity measures on Greece, already at breaking point due to a shrinking economy and rapidly rising unemployment.
European markets were lower Monday, with London’s FTSE 100 down 1.16 percent, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 off 1.55 percent and the CAC 40 in Paris shedding 1.49 percent.
However, Greek shares jumped 2.30 percent on hopes the new government will push through the EU rescue plan.
On Friday, US government data showed slightly lower unemployment in October, dipping to 9.0 percent, but that did little to convince markets of a sustained recovery in the world’s biggest economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.51 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 0.44 percent, while the S&P 500-stock index was 0.63 percent lower.
On currency markets in afternoon Asian trade, the euro eased against the dollar fetching $1.3725 and 107.20 yen against $1.3788 and 107.89 in New York late Friday.
The dollar bought 78.08 yen compared to 78.23 yen.
New York’s main oil contract, light sweet crude for December delivery was 37 cents higher at $94.63 a barrel and Brent North Sea oil for December delivery advanced $1.11 to $113.08.
At 1000 GMT gold was higher at $1,763.55 an ounce against $1,758.50 late Friday.
In other markets:
— Taipei gained 0.24 percent, or 18.49 points, to end at 7,621.72.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. was 0.54 percent higher at Tw$75.0 while leading smartphone maker HTC added 2.03 percent to Tw$653.0
— Wellington ended 0.31 percent, or 10.40 points, higher at 3,342.19.
Fletcher Building gained 0.8 percent to NZ$6.50 and Telecom added 0.2 percent to NZ$2.64.
— Jakarta closed down 0.14 percent, or 5.39 points, at 3,778.24.
— Bangkok was 0.13 percent, or 1.29 points, lower at 956.02
— Manila, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Mumbai were closed for public holidays.—Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this story
