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| Asian Stocks Drop, Led by BHP and PetroChina |
| News Archive - Industry Headline - Oct news | |
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(Bloomberg, Oct 31, 2006) Asian stocks fell after oil posted its biggest drop in more than a year. BHP Billiton, PetroChina Co. and Inpex Holdings Inc. led declines. ``I can't be bullish on oil-related shares until I confirm a solid rebound in crude prices,'' said Hideyuki Ookoshi, who oversees $365 million at Chiba-Gin Asset Management Co. in Tokyo. Honda Motor Co. and LG.Philips LCD Co. led gains by some exporters on speculation lower fuel costs will boost consumer spending. Creative Technology Ltd., whose music players are losing to Apple Computer Inc.'s iPods, dropped after the Singaporean company reported a third straight quarterly loss. The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia-Pacific Index fell 0.2 percent to 131.73 as of 7:05 p.m. in Tokyo. The index climbed 2.5 percent in October, the biggest monthly advance since April. Key measures in Australia and India fell from all-time highs, while the Jakarta Composite Index rose 0.2 percent to a record for the second straight day. Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 0.3 percent to 16,399.39, rallying from its steepest loss in 12 weeks yesterday, while the broader Topix index lost 0.2 percent. Pakistan's key index slumped 1.7 percent, Asia's worst performer. Indexes advanced elsewhere in the region. BHP, the world's biggest mining company by market value and production, dropped 2.3 percent to A$27.28. BHP earns almost a fifth of its sales from oil. PetroChina, China's largest oil producer, fell 0.4 percent to HK$8.57. Inpex, Japan's biggest oil explorer, declined 1.5 percent to 956,000 yen. Oil & Gas Development Co., Pakistan's biggest energy explorer, dropped 2.7 percent to 148.7 rupees. `More Money' Crude oil slumped 3.9 percent to $58.36 a barrel in New York, the biggest one-day decline since Aug. 17, 2005. Oil was recently at $58.04 in after-hours trading. Honda, Japan's third-largest carmaker, added 0.2 percent to 4,140 yen. LG.Philips, the world's second-largest maker of liquid-crystal displays, jumped 4.4 percent to 30,000 won. ``A fall in oil prices puts more money into the pockets of U.S. consumers and that improves the prospects for Asian exporters,'' said James Chua, who helps oversee $170 million at Phillip Capital Management Ltd. in Singapore. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's biggest supplier of custom-made chips, added 0.5 percent to NT$61. Venture Corp., Singapore's biggest publicly traded electronics maker for customers including Hewlett-Packard Co., gained 2.1 percent to S$14.30. An index of materials shares fell 0.7 percent, the biggest slide among the regional benchmark's 10 industry groups. A measure of six metals traded on the London Metal Exchange, including copper and zinc, lost 0.8 percent. Copper fell 1.3 percent, while nickel slid 1.3 percent. Rio, Creative Rio Tinto Group, the world's second-biggest mining company by production, fell 1.7 percent to A$78.40. Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Japan's biggest gold and nickel producer, fell 1.9 percent to 1,537 yen. Creative tumbled 7.1 percent to S$10.40, the second-biggest loser on the MSCI regional index. Its net loss for the fiscal first quarter was $21 million, compared with a profit of $691,000 a year earlier, the Singaporean company said. The result exceeded the widest loss forecast of $18.6 million in a Bloomberg survey of four analysts. ``Operationally, the earnings were much worse than expected,'' said Carey Wong, a Singapore-based analyst at OCBC Investment Research. ``Creative still has a lot of work to do if it wants to turn around.'' Creative Technology Ltd. (CREAF SP) |
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