Bangkok - Most emerging-market stocks fell as Great Wall Motor Co. dragged Chinese shares lower, offsetting a rally in Indian equities.
The Philippine peso surged after the nation won a credit-rating upgrade from Standard & Poor’s.
Great Wall slumped 17 percent in Hong Kong after China’s largest maker of SUVs pushed back sales of its new flagship vehicle. India’s Sensex rose to a record before general-election results next week.
South Africa’s rand slid from a four-month high, while the Turkish lira halted an 11-day rally as equities in both countries declined.
Nigeria’s naira extended a weekly loss as President Goodluck Jonathan faced a credibility crisis over kidnapping by Islamist extremists.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index slid less than 0.1 percent to 1,008.66 by 1:58 p.m. in London.
It has climbed 0.5 percent in the last five days, poised for a second weekly gain.
Data today showed consumer inflation in China moderated to an 18-month low and the decline in factory-gate prices persisted, adding to signs that domestic demand remains muted.
“China is much more important in overall emerging-market sentiment,” Lars Christensen, chief emerging-market analyst at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen, said by phone.
“The big worry in the background remains that something might go badly wrong.”
The developing-nation gauge has gained 0.6 percent this year and trades at 10.5 times projected 12-month earnings, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
The MSCI World Index has risen 1.3 percent in 2014 and is valued at 14.7 times.
Electoral Victory
The FTSE/JSE Africa All Shares Index in Johannesburg fell 0.3 percent, after touching a record intraday high yesterday as the ruling African National Congress decisively won a fifth straight national election.
The rand depreciated 0.2 percent, after advancing 2 percent in the past three days.
The naira lost 0.2 percent, taking its weekly loss to 0.9 percent, as the hunt continued for more than 200 girls kidnapped by extremists.
The death toll in an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants on a town near Nigeria’s border with Cameroon this week exceeded 300, a local official said.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index was little changed.
Turkey’s Borsa Istanbul 100 index slid 0.2 percent, paring a weekly gain to 0.6 percent.
Stocks “no longer look cheap,” Citigroup Inc. analysts Richard Schellbach and Maria Gratsova said in an e-mailed report today, adding it was “time to go neutral.”
The lira retreated 0.3 percent, halting the longest winning streak since April 2010.
Great Wall Tumbles
The premium investors demand to own emerging-market debt over US Treasuries fell three basis points today to 276, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. indexes.
Five out of 10 industry groups in the emerging-markets measure dropped, led by healthcare and technology shares.
Taiwan’s Taiex Index fell 0.5 percent.
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of mainland companies listed in Hong Kong dropped 0.5 percent, extending its weekly loss to 1.2 percent.
Great Wall tumbled the most in more than five years after it delayed the sales of its new Haval H8 vehicle for the second time this year.
The Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.2 percent, taking its weekly loss to 0.8 percent, its fourth weekly drop.
The consumer price index rose 1.8 percent from a year earlier in April, the National Bureau of Statistics said today in Beijing. That compares with the median estimate of 2.1 percent in a Bloomberg News survey and a 2.4 percent gain in March. The producer-price index fell 2 percent, after a 2.3 percent drop the previous month.
Sensex Rallies
The S&P BSE Sensex index rallied 2.9 percent as opinion polls showed Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party winning enough parliamentary seats to form a new government.
The Philippine Stock Exchange PSEi Index rose 1.2 percent and the peso jumped to the highest level in five months as S&P yesterday raised the nation’s long-term sovereign credit rating one level to BBB, a year after it was upgraded to investment grade.
Vietnam’s VN Index jumped 2.9 percent, rebounding from the biggest drop since 2001 yesterday, as foreign investors boosted their holdings in a bet that losses spurred by escalating tensions with China will prove short-lived.
The Thai baht weakened 0.4 percent as anti-government demonstrators marched to Government House and the offices of the nation’s biggest television networks to increase pressure on the caretaker government to step down. - Bloomberg News