By Adam Haigh - Sep 17, 2013 2:10 PM GMT+0400
A pedestrian is reflected in a window against an electronic board displaying stock information as he walks past the Australian Securities Exchange in Sydney. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index lost 0.3 percent. Photographer: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg
Asian stocks fell, with the benchmark regional index declining from a four-month high, as the U.S. Federal Reserve begins a two-day policy meeting at which it’s forecast to reduce the pace of bond buying.
Samsung Electronics Co. (005930), Asia’s biggest technology company, sank 2.7 percent in Seoul, retreating from the highest level since May. Daiichi Sankyo Co. (4568), which owns 64 percent of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., tumbled 6.8 percent in Tokyo after U.S. regulators restricted imports from one of the Indian drugmaker’s facilities. Wing Hang Bank Ltd. (302)soared a record 39 percent in Hong Kong after saying shareholders were approached for a takeover bid.
A pedestrian is reflected in a window against an electronic board displaying stock information as he walks past the Australian Securities Exchange in Sydney. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index lost 0.3 percent. Photographer: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg
Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Slim Feriani, the London-based chief investment officer of Advance Emerging Capital Ltd., talks about the outlook for Asian emerging markets and investment strategy. He speaks from Sydney with Angie Lau and John Dawson on Bloomberg Television's "Asia Edge." (Source: Bloomberg)
Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Kerry Series, chief investment officer at Eight Investment Partners, talks about the outlook for Asian financial markets and his investment strategy. Series also discusses Federal Reserve monetary policy and its implications for Asian markets. He speaks in Hong Kong with Mia Saini on Bloomberg Television's "First Up." (Source: Bloomberg)
Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- David Poh, the regional head of portfolio-management solutions at Societe Generale SA’s private bank, talks about Federal Reserve monetary policy, its potential impact on global financial markets, and his investment strategy. He speaks from Singapore with John Dawson on Bloomberg Television's "On the Move." (Source: Bloomberg)
Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Ahmad Al-Hamad, group managing director at Asiya Investments, a Hong Kong and Dubai-based asset-management firm that specializes in emerging Asia, talks about the economies, financial markets and his investment strategy. He speaks in Hong Kong with John Dawson on Bloomberg Television's "On the Move." (Source: Bloomberg)
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 0.4 percent to 138.19 as of 6:02 p.m. in Hong Kong as all 10 industry groups on the gauge declined. The Federal Open Market Committee meets today and tomorrow to consider whether to taper its $85 billion-a-month in bond buying. Purchases will probably be cut by $10 billion, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists.
“Tapering is coming, but it’s only going to be small,” Kerry Series, Sydney-based chief investment officer at Eight Investment Partners, told Bloomberg TV. “There is an economic recovery under way in the U.S., but it’s fragile. The combination of low valuations, easy monetary policy and reasonable earnings growth across the region means markets will want to go higher.” His Asia-Pacific fund beat 89 percent of peers, rising 39 percent in the past year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Regional Gauges
South Korea’s Kospi index retreated 0.4 percent as Samsung dragged the country’s benchmark lower. Shares of the electronics maker slid 2.7 percent to 1.386 million won. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index sank 0.3 percent and China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropped 2.1 percent.
Japan’s Topix index slid 0.3 percent as the equity market reopened after a holiday. Taiwan’s Taiex Index dropped 0.1 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index (AS51) rose 0.1 percent to close at a five-year high. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index gained 0.1 percent to a record. Singapore’s Straits Times Index was little changed.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index’s 6.8 percent rally in 2013 has lagged a 19 percent surge in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index amid concern economic growth in China is slowing. The Asia-Pacific measure trades at 13.5 times estimated earnings, compared with a multiple of 15.4 for the S&P 500 and 14.2 times for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Fed Leadership
The Asia-Pacific index climbed to a four-month high yesterday after former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers withdrew his bid to be the next Fed chairman.
The Reserve Bank of Australia said it retains the option of reducing interest rates and a further decline in the currency would aid the economy as resource investment slows, minutes of the central bank’s Sept. 3 meeting showed. Governor Glenn Stevens and his board left the benchmark interest rate at a record-low 2.5 percent at that meeting.
Futures on the S&P 500 fell 0.1 percent today. The gauge yesterday came within five points of its record high on Aug. 2.
The U.S. benchmark measure has rallied for nine of 10 sessions this month, rising 4 percent to rebound from the worst monthly loss since May 2012, as reports showed China’s economy strengthened and the U.S. looked less likely to attack Syria.
Import Restrictions
Daiichi Sankyo lost 6.8 percent to 1,772 yen as U.S. regulators restricted imports from a factory of its Indian unit Ranbaxy Laboratories. The plant would have been used to make a majority of generic drugs that Ranbaxy was filing for U.S. approval, including Diovan, according to Cantor Fitzgerald LP, referring to a blood-pressure pill that generated $4.4 billion in sales for Novartis AG last year.
Wing Hang Bank soared 40 percent to HK$116.80. The firm joins other lenders such as Chong Hing Bank Ltd. in acquisition talks as Hong Kong’s role as an international yuan center attracts mainland financial institutions that are seeking to expand overseas.
Nippon Yakin Kogyo Co. (5480) climbed 9.6 percent to 307 yen in Tokyo after starting contract production for a unit of Japan’s biggest steelmaker.
Sharp Corp. rallied 6.6 percent to 370 yen. The Nikkei newspaper reported the TV maker will increase its earnings forecast and announce a share sale tomorrow.
To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Haigh in Sydney at ahaigh1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sarah McDonald at smcdonald23@bloomberg.net
