0
HONG KONG, May 8: Asian stocks closed mostly down on Thursday after the oil price rose to a fresh all-time high, triggering a Wall Street tumble and stoking fears of rising inflation.
The Japanese market, the biggest in Asia, fell by more than one per cent.
Singapore also suffered a heavy tumble, sliding over 1.7 per cent. The bourses in Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and India also ended in the red.
The weaker Asian performance followed a sharp Wall Street slide of more than 1.5 per cent on Wednesday. Soaring crude prices triggered the US fall, with investors fearing energy costs would stoke inflation and hit consumer spending.
World oil prices continued their record-breaking run Thursday, reaching a fresh intra-day peak of nearly 124 dollars per barrel.
TOKYO: Japanese share prices fell back from a near four-month high following overnight losses on Wall Street, where surging oil prices and inflation worries weighed on sentiment, dealers said.
The benchmark Nikkei-225 index fell 159.22 points or 1.13 per cent to close at 13,943.26. The broader Topix index of all first-section shares fell 20.33 points or 1.46 per cent to 1,372.95.
Volume dropped to 1.88 billion shares, from 2.12 billion on Wednesday.
HONG KONG: Hong Kong share prices closed down 0.63 per cent, dealers said.
The Hang Seng index closed down 160.42 points at 25,449.79. Turnover was 76.95 billion Hong Kong dollars (9.87 billion US).
The market extended (Wednesday’s) losses, but the downside was limited as select blue-chips, local banks and telecom stocks outperformed, said Matthew Kwok at Tanrich Securities.
Standard Chartered fell more than 2.6 per cent after reporting further writedowns on its asset-backed securities portfolio.
SYDNEY: Australian shares closed up 1.0 per cent, dealers said.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 closed up 54.8 points at 5,723.2, while the broader All Ordinaries rose 43.1 points or 0.8 per cent to 5,800.9. Volume was 6.1 billion dollars (5.7 billion US).
The market opened weaker after one of Wall Street’s biggest falls in recent sessions, but the banks led the charge up after being the big underperformers for quite some time, said Joseph Youssef at Macquarie Private Wealth.
But BHP Billiton was down 0.8 per cent at 44.95 and Rio Tinto edged up 0.1 per cent to 145.40.
SINGAPORE: Singapore share prices closed down 1.77 per cent, dealers said.
The blue chip Straits Times Index fell 57.07 points to 3,171.88 on volume of 1.59 billion shares worth 2.06 billion Singapore dollars (1.50 billion US).
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian share prices closed 0.5 per cent lower, dealers said.
The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) closed down 6.8 points at 1,280.35.
SJ Securities analyst Phua Kwee Hock highlighted the plantation and oil-and-gas sectors.
JAKARTA: Indonesian shares closed 0.2 per cent lower, dealers said. The Jakarta Composite Index closed down 5.77 points at 2,376.93.
Valbury Asia Securities analyst Reny Susanti said the market traded lower for most of the day as players cashed in gains from a strong rally last week.
WELLINGTON: New Zealand share prices closed 0.80 per cent higher, dealers said.
The NZX-50 gross index rose 28.78 points to 3,625.59.
Nigel Scott of ABN Amro Craigs said disappointing jobs data had underlined the economic outlook for New Zealand would be subdued.
Telecom rose 12 cents to 3.97 dollars. Contact Energy dropped three cents to $9.03. Fletcher Building gained 11 cents to 8.48.
MUMBAI: Indian share prices closed 1.49 pc lower, dealers said. The benchmark Mumbai 30-share Sensex fell 258.66 points to 17,080.65.
Higher commodity and oil prices are keeping inflation concerns high, said Manoj Kakaiya at ULJK Securities.
—AFP
