Asia Watch

By THIS IS MONEY
Updated:

 

Sharp gains for Richard Li's Pacific Century Cyberworks contrasted with a sell-off among blue-chips in Hong Kong today as the market took a rest from its recent rally.

Shares in Pacific, which has still not revealed details of any bid for Cable & Wireless HKT, resumed trading after a two-day suspension and surged more than 12% to a record high of HK$28.50.

Pacific yesterday unveiled a US$1 billion share placing, which will top up the company's war chest for any attack on C&W HKT. The shares are now more expensive than those of its possible takeover target as C&W HKT shares came off the boil, falling 3.22% to HK$25.55. The shares had put on around 50% on the previous two trading days.

The falls for C&W HKT came amid a sharply lower Hong Kong market, the Hang Seng off

430.81 points to 16,758.15 by the mid-session break. Shares in companies controlled by Richard Li's father, the tycoon Li Ka-shing, were among those hardest hit with Hutchison Whampoa down 4.5% and property affiliate Cheung Kong 6.5% lower. China Telecom, which rang up a series of record highs last week, was off by more than 4%.

The sell-off among blue-chips contrasted with a renewed demand for China-linked red-chips, with the sector index up 3.9%.

Leading the way was China's biggest computers maker Legend, the shares spiking more than 10% after yesterday announcing a one-into-four share split.

Tokyo turned negative after a positive start, the Nikkei 225 Average closing 188.63 lower at 19,367.83.

The index, which topped 20,000 points last week, had earlier traded as high as 19,689 before the market started to drift lower, with brokers detecting an unwinding of cross-shareholdings ahead of the 31 March book closings. Banks were once again lower, the sector index off 3.94% as proposals for a tax on bank profits from Tokyo's municipal government continued to sour sentiment. Sakura Bank was down 6.1% and the Industrial Bank of Japan 4.9%.

Internet leader Softbank went against the trend, the shares adding another 6% after local reports claimed its consortium was the winning bidder in the auction for the nationalised Nippon Credit Bank. Softbank is looking for a banking licence as a first step to establishing an online bank. The internet was also powering shares in

Toshiba, which put on more than 3% after the company yesterday outlined a new strategy targeting 250 billion yen in internet-related sales by 2003.

Elsewhere, trading was mixed on a lack of fresh incentives, with most markets unconvinced by Wall Street's modest overnight gains. The biggest move came in Korea, where the Kospi fell through the 900-points level, shedding

20.76 to 890.11. After two stellar years in 1998 and 1999, the market is down around 10% from its level at 1 January. Singapore also lost heavily, 33.47 to 2202.69.

In Malaysia yesterday's announcement on local bank mergers helped the Composite reclaim the 1000-points level, up 6.65 to 1004.94. The index has gained 25% this year.

More gains for Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation helped Australia's All Ordinaries put on 21.8 to 3157.1. Unconfirmed American reports claim it is set to spin off its satellite television interests. News shares were up 2.47% to A$22.80.

Thailand's SET dipped 4.64 to 442.92, Taiwan's Composite fell 13.71 to 9957.74, while Jakarta's Composite was up 4.3 at 638.01.

Most watched Money videos