Business | Markets
Asian stocks fall, snapping record rally
Asian stocks fell, adding to the regional benchmark index's worst month ever, as a record three- day rally fizzled after companies slashed profit forecasts and metals prices tumbled.
- Bloomberg
- Published: 12:03 October 31, 2008
Seoul: Asian stocks fell, adding to the regional benchmark index's worst month ever, as a record three- day rally fizzled after companies slashed profit forecasts and metals prices tumbled.
Mazda Motor Corp. fell 14 per cent and Pioneer Corp. lost 15 per cent after projecting lower earnings.
KB Financial Group Inc. fell 8.6 per cent in Seoul after unit Kookmin Bank reported a worse-than-expected profit decline.
BHP Billiton Ltd., the world's biggest mining company, slid 2.1 per ent after stockpiles of metals jumped.
"Yesterday's rally was too good to be true," Soichiro Monji, chief strategist at Tokyo-based Daiwa SB Investments Ltd., which manages about $53 billion, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. "Investors are very likely to take this chance to lock in profits."
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index retreated 2.1 per cent to 86.41 as in Tokyo. It is set to lose 19 percent this month, the most in the measure's 21-year history.
Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 5 per cent to 8,576.98, snapping a three-day, 26 percent advance that was the biggest since at least 1970.
The index lost almost 300 points in the final 10 minutes of trading ahead of a three-day weekend.
Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index jumped 7.1 per cent, after the nation's bourse doubled the range of stock-price gains to 20 per cent.
The JCI lost 5.7 per cent this week to Thursday, compared with a 9.8 per cent surge in MSCI's Asian index.
India's Sensitive Index added 7.4 percent as markets reopened on Friday following Thursday's holiday. Benchmark indexes elsewhere in Asia climbed except China, Hong Kong and Singapore.
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