Asian markets end lower ahead of US data

31 Oct 2011 Evaluate

After exhibiting a cheerful trade in previous session, all the Asian equity indices barring KLSE Composite witnessed a choppy trade on Monday as investors shifted their focus from Europe’s debt woes to the US economy, waiting for the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting and the key employment data that are scheduled to be announced later this week. Meanwhile, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo swung between positive and negative territory during the trade and ended the session with a cut of over half a percent after Japan intervened to weaken its currency, which had earlier hit a new post World War II high against the greenback. The strong yen has dented earnings of Japanese corporations such as Nintendo Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. and hurt the economy’s recovery from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Moreover, Chinese Shanghai Composite snapped a five-session winning streak by falling over 0.20 percent.

Asian Indices	Last Trade	Change in Points	Change in %
Shanghai Composite	2,468.25	-5.16	-0.21
Hang Seng	19,864.87	-154.37	-0.77
Jakarta Composite	3,790.85	-39.11	-1.02
KLSE Composite	1,491.89	10.07	0.68
Nikkei 225	8,988.39	-62.08	-0.69
Straits Times	2,855.77	-49.95	-1.72
Seoul Composite	1,909.03	-20.45	-1.06
Taiwan Weighted	7,587.69	-28.37	-0.37