Robust US retail sales lift Asian markets
Chinese growth figures trigger concern:
HONG KONG: Asian markets rose on Tuesday in response to a strong
showing on Wall Street after another round of upbeat data lifted hopes
for the US economy.
But dealers also remained hesitant ahead of the release this week of
Chinese third-quarter growth figures, as evidence accumulates of a
slowdown in the world's second-biggest economy.
In Japan, telecoms giant Softbank surged by more than 10 percent,
clawing back some of its huge losses in the previous two sessions, after
formally announcing it will buy US wireless provider Nextel Sprint for
$20 billion.
Tokyo rose 0.94 percent by the break, Hong Kong added 0.13 percent in
morning trade, Sydney gained 0.22 percent, Shanghai was up 0.10 percent
and Seoul climbed 0.36 percent.Trade got off to a positive start with
the news out of Washington that retail sales, the main driver of the US
economy, had unexpectedly risen 1.1 percent in September.
The Commerce Department also revised up retail sales for July and
August, and said that even excluding volatile data on vehicles and
petrol, sales were still up 0.9 percent last month.Helping the mood on
Wall Street, banking giant Citigroup reported an 88 percent drop in
third-quarter profit, much better than had been forecast. The Dow gained
0.72 percent, its biggest jump in more than a month, while the S&P 500
rose 0.81 percent and the Nasdaq added 0.66 percent. On currency markets
the euro was trading higher thanks to an improved appetite for risk.
In early Asian trade it was buying $1.2963, up from $1.2950 late
Monday in New York, while it also rose to 102.17 yen from 101.89 yen.
The dollar stood at 78.80 yen, up slightly from 78.66 in New York.The
main focus of interest this week is on China, which is to release
Thursday its growth figures for July-September, with many hoping for an
improvement on recent data that have shown a marked slowdown.
Hopes were given a boost at the weekend by trade figures that showed
China's exports surged almost 10 percent last month.
AFP
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