| CATEGORY: MARKET REPORT - ASIA |
Nikkei up, Hang Seng hits new record |
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Mon 22 Jan 2007
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LONDON (SHARECAST) - A weaker yen helped the Nikkei higher on Monday, boosting expectations that key blue chips will upwardly revise earnings expectations.
The Nikkei closed up 113 points or 0.66% at 17,424.
Robust commodity prices helped boost a number of stocks such as Inpex Holdings.
Elsewhere Japan's biggest bank Mitsubishi UFJ rose strongly after Aiful, Japan’s biggest consumer lender, said it will slash jobs and cut other costs to reduce losses. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial also rose on the news.
Shares in China Mobile pushed Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index sharply higher on Monday, after it reported a record rise in new subscribers last month.
The Hang Seng closed up 444 points or 2.19%, recording a new closing high of 20,772. The index's last closing high, at the start of January hit 20,413.
PetroChina rose on the back of a recovery in oil prices. Crude oil for February delivery was up $1.51 to $51.99 on Friday in New York as colder weather moved into the Northeast of America.
Insurers did well on Monday after PICC Property and Casualty said annual pre-tax profit will rise more than 80% as the industry grows.
Ping An Insurance, China's second biggest insurer, tracked the rise. Shares in local banking giant HSBC charged ahead.
In economic news Hong Kong's CPI index in December rose 2.3% from a year earlier, compared with a 2.2% increase the month before, according to fresh government figures.
The report attributed the bigger year-on-year increase in the December price index to higher food costs as the yuan gradually appreciates against US and Hong Kong currencies.
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