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Strategies & Market Trends : Waiting for the big Kahuna -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brad Bolen who wrote (30248)	10/5/1998 1:21:00 AM
From: flickerful	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 94695

Asian Stocks: Japan Mixed, Taiwan Falls; Korea Up, HK Closed By Sandy Hendry Tokyo: Japanese stocks closed mixed, after the benchmark index fell below 13,000 points in early trade, while the market in Taiwan fell on concerns that a slowing global economy will hurt earnings. Hong Kong and China markets are closed for a holiday. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index rose 26.57 points, or 0.2 percent, to 13,223.7. In early trade, it fell as low as 12,973. Sony fell 7 percent to 8,320 yen, TDK fell 10.5 percent to 7,720 and Canon Inc. fell 2.7 percent to 2,530. Concern about Japan's economy also drove down shares in Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., the world's largest telephone company. NTT fell 9.4 percent to 886,000. ''NTT is always the first share that investors want to buy and the last one they want to sell,'' said Makio Inui, an analyst at Salomon Smith Barney Inc. ''Investors have no confidence in Japan now.'' Taiwan's weighted index fell 4 percent to 6,436.00. Electronics companies such as Asustec Computer Inc. led the decline after the technology-heavy U.S. Nasdaq Composite Index fell 4.8 percent. Korean bank stocks rose amid optimism that the government's plan to rescue debt-laden banks by buying bad loans will be effective. Cho Hung Bank rose 11.3 percent to 590 as the Kospi closed up 0.9 percent at 308.25. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Singapore's Big Companies Take a Beating and Brace for Worse By Claire Leow Singapore: Singapore's largest companies are blue-black from reporting some of their biggest first-half profit plunges in a decade. And investors are bracing for worse to come. ''Blood is on the streets,'' said Chong Yoon Chou, a fund manager at Aberdeen Fund Managers (Asia) Ltd. which manages US$1 billion. ''Even the top-line companies are suffering.'' From national flag carrier Singapore Airlines Ltd. to Neptune Orient Lines Ltd., the world's fifth-largest shipping line, almost no company has been spared the rout of Asia's financial troubles. In the first half, 190 companies earned S$660 million (US$390.5 million), an 80 percent plunge from a year ago, the Straits Times said. Only 133 were profitable, and three-fifths saw earnings decline. With economic growth forecast at as little as 0.5 percent this year from 7.8 percent last year, companies are poised to report for 1998 some of the worst results of the island's corporate history.