Asian Stocks Fluctuate on Utilities, Industrial S
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By Yoshiaki Nohara Mar 27, 2014 11:14 AM GMT+0530
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Asia’s benchmark stocks gauge swung between gains and losses as utilities advanced while industrial stocks declined.
Tencent Holdings Ltd. fell 5.7 percent in Hong Kong as Asian Internet companies declined amid concern that valuations in the industry are overstretched. A MSCI Asia Pacific Index sub-gauge tracking power and gas companies rose the most as Japanese utilities advanced, while Hyundai Merchant Marine Co. slumped 7.2 percent in Seoul to lead industrial shares lower. Citic Pacific Ltd. soared 16 percent in Hong Kong on a plan to buy its parent’s assets.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slid 0.1 percent to 135.73 as of 2:40 p.m. in Tokyo. The gauge fell as much as 0.7 percent on concern tension in Ukraine may escalate, before paring losses in the Asian afternoon and briefly trading as much as 0.1 percent higher.
President Barack Obama said yesterday the U.S. and its European allies stand united against Russian attempts to redraw Ukraine’s boundaries, while warning that indifference would ignore the lessons from two world wars.
Japan’s Topix index fell 0.3 percent as most stocks traded without the right to the latest dividend. South Korea’s Kospi index added 0.5 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 0.5 percent, while New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index was little changed. Taiwan’s Taiex Index and Singapore’s Straits Times Index climbed 0.4 percent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.3 percent, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of mainland shares traded in the city was little changed. The Shanghai Composite Index slid 0.4 percent. Data today showed mainland China industrial profits increased 9.4 percent in the two months through February year-on-year, compared with 17 percent growth a year earlier.
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.1 percent today. The measure lost 0.7 percent yesterday with declines accelerating in the final hour of trading.
To contact the reporter on this story: Yoshiaki Nohara in Tokyo at ynohara1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sarah McDonald at smcdonald23@bloomberg.net Tom Redmond