Asian markets wobble uncertainty in Japan lingers

Japanese stocks were sold off in the morning and were still in the red in the afternoon. 

Markets are still anxious as Japan is expected to put an official estimate on the extent of damages from the earthquake and tsunami that hit the country last week. 

Tokyo Electric Power Co, the owner of the damaged plant slumped 4.3 per cent while Toyota Motor Corp, the world’s largest carmaker, dropped 1.5 per cent after saying it will halt domestic production through March 26. JTekt Corp, a car parts supplier slumped 5.6 per cent.

In Hong Kong China Coal, the nation’s second largest producer of the fuel, dropped 6.6 per cent. Maanshan Iron & Steel Co, China’s second biggest Hong Kong traded steelmaker, slipped 2.8 per cent after reporting second half earnings slumped 95 per cent. 

In Australia, the local market switched from positive to negative (territory) and back again in another lacklustre day of trading.

A lot of people must have been hurt by the market falls last week. There’s not a lot of conviction amongst investors at the moment.

It feels like the market has lost direction temporarily. People seem to be just following and trading the news. And of course, you cannot discount all the uncertainties still hovering around the global markets.

At the moment, people are getting in and out of sectors or specific stocks. They are not holding on to their positions for long. There seems to be more short-term (trading) investing at the moment. And you can’t blame people if they are non-committal given the market condition.

We may see this lacklustre and conviction-less environment for a while. But the good thing is the market is now above or hovering around the 200-day Moving Average (MA) again. This means we’ve bounced back from the lows hit just right after the Japanese disasters.