Asian shares recover from early losses

Asian stocks were mixed despite negative offshore leads. The MSCI Asia Pacific index was around 0.4% lower as S&P500 futures turned mildly positive in afternoon […]


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By :  ,  Financial Analyst

Asian stocks were mixed despite negative offshore leads. The MSCI Asia Pacific index was around 0.4% lower as S&P500 futures turned mildly positive in afternoon Asian trading.

The Japanese Yen reversed recent gains against the U.S. dollar but the gains were hardly anything significant. At the time of writing the USD/JPY pair was back under 77.00 but only slightly.

In corporate news, the Tokyo Stock Exchange group launched a takeover bid which values Osaka Securities Exchange at around $1.68bn, continuing a trend of regional and global securities exchanges consolidating to fend off competition and build scale.

Shares in Australian steelmaker OneSteel shed around 11% following the admission of BlueScope steel, a separate Australian steel manufacturer, that it was raising some $600m in shareholder funds to pay down debt.

OneSteel was guilty by association today with many traders speculating it too will have to top up its balance sheet to meet very challenging industry conditions. BlueScope resumes trading on Thursday Sydney time.

In regional economic news, the World Bank said it sees a soft landing for Chinese growth of around 8% in 2012, relieving some concerns that the world’s second largest economy was cooling down too quickly. Developing East Asia, which excludes Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and India, will see its expansion moderate to 7.8% in 2012 from 8.2% this year, the Washington-based development lender said in a semi-annual report today.

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