Emerging stocks drop as won slips

File picture: Alex Grimm

File picture: Alex Grimm

Published Jan 14, 2014

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Hanoi - Emerging-market stocks fell for the first time in three days as Great Wall Motor Co. tumbled on a product delay and exporters followed US equities lower.

South Korea’s won weakened, while the yuan touched a 20-year high.

Great Wall Motor, China’s biggest maker of sport-utility vehicles, fell the most in five years in Hong Kong after it delayed the debut of its Haval H8 model.

Russia’s Micex Index dropped to a one-month low and Turkey’s Borsa Istanbul 100 Index declined for the first time in three days.

LG Chem Ltd., which gets most of its sales outside South Korea, dropped 1.5 percent in Seoul.

The won weakened 0.2 percent amid intervention speculation, while the yuan reached 6.0406 per dollar.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index slid 0.5 percent to 972.49 as of 4:27 p.m. in Hong Kong, following a 1.3 percent drop in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index yesterday.

Federal Reserve board members Charles Plosser and Richard Fisher are scheduled to speak today after Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart yesterday backed reductions in bond buying in the US, where retail sales data is due today.

The emerging-market gauge has dropped 7 percent since May 22 amid concern cuts in Fed stimulus will reduce investor demand for riskier assets.

Stocks are falling amid “increased concerns in emerging markets toward capital outflows,” said Gavin Parry, the managing director of Hong Kong-based brokerage Parry International Trading Ltd.

 

Great Wall

 

Industrial companies led declines in the MSCI emerging- markets index as 9 of 10 industry groups retreated.

MSCI’s developing-nation stock gauge has retreated 3 percent this year and trades at 10.2 times projected 12-month earnings.

That compares with a multiple of 14.6 for the MSCI World Index of advanced-nation shares, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The Micex fell 1.2 percent for its first drop in four days, led by energy companies.

OAO Gazprom, the world’s biggest producer of natural gas, dropped 0.8 percent and refiner OAO Lukoil declined 0.9 percent.

Turkey’s Borsa Istanbul 100 Index lost 1.1 percent and the FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index declined 0.3 percent in Johannesburg.

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index dropped 0.3 percent, while Taiwan’s Taiex slipped 0.2 percent and South Korea’s Kospi retreated 0.2 percent.

Exchanges in Malaysia and Indonesia are closed for holidays.

Gozde Girisim Sermayesi Yatirim Ortakligi AS slumped 4.9 percent in Istanbul after the financial services firm yesterday said it will raise capital.

MTN Group Ltd., the largest telecommunications firm in Africa and the Middle-East by market capitalisation, retreated for the first time in three days.

 

Product Delay

 

Great Wall fell 12 percent, the biggest drag on the MSCI emerging-markets index.

The company said in a statement late yesterday it’s delaying the H8 for three months to fix eight deficiencies ranging from insensitive door stoppers to low steering resistance.

The won weakened for the first time in five days. South Korea will act if needed to stabilise the currency market to help companies cope with the weak yen, the trade ministry said in an e-mailed statement today.

The Korean currency’s 11 percent gain versus the Japanese currency in the past six months hurts the competitiveness of companies such as Samsung Electronics Co. and Hyundai Motor Co. in overseas markets.

Samsung gained 1.4 percent today while Hyundai Motor added 1.8 percent.

Thailand’s baht gained 0.6 percent against the dollar, the biggest advance since October 17.

No violence was reported at a blockade of central Bangkok by anti-government demonstrators.

The protest is likely to remain peaceful, Charamporn Jotikasthira, president of the Stock Exchange of Thailand, said in an e-mailed statement today.

The yuan rose 0.04 percent to 6.0412 per dollar, according to China Foreign Exchange Trade System.

It earlier reached the strongest level since China unified the official and market exchange rates at the end of 1993. - Bloomberg News

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