skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Crude-oil futures were down in Asian trade Monday and traders expect oil prices to stay volatile this week with little evidence of stronger demand or tighter supply to support a solid rebound.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in February CLG5, +4.74% traded at $48.40 a barrel in recent trade, down 29 cents in the Globex electronic session. March Brent crude LCOH5, -0.22% on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell 33 cents to $49.84 a barrel.
Here are the latest trading levels for Asia's major stock markets:
Tokyo (Nikkei Average NIK, +0.79% ) up 0.5%
Hong Kong (Hang Seng Index HSI, -1.08% ) down 1.1%
Shanghai (Shanghai Composite Index SHCOMP, -6.47% ) down 6.3% (at break)
Sydney (S&P/ASX 200 XJO, +0.23% ) up 0.3%
Seoul (Kospi SEU, +0.88% ) up 0.9%
Mumbai (Sensex 1, +0.70% ) up 0.5%
Taipei (Taiex Y9999, +0.25% ) up 0.6%
Asian equity markets mostly rose Monday following a rally on Wall Street and a strong pick-up in oil prices, but Shanghai plunged almost six percent after Chinese regulators suspended three major brokerages over rule violations.
The euro continued to struggle against the dollar and yen ahead of this week's European Central Bank (ECB) meeting that is expected to see it unveil a vast bond-buying scheme to kickstart the eurozone economy.
Tokyo rose 0.52 per cent, Sydney added 0.90 per cent, Seoul advanced 0.92 per cent and Singapore put on 0.24 per cent.
However, Shanghai dived 5.88 per cent in the first few minutes, while Hong Kong gave up 0.62 per cent.
MALAYSIA share prices opened higher on Monday with the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index up 2.49 points to 1745.50.
Volume was 45.72 million lots worth RM17.72 million.
Gainers outnumbered losers 152 to 38.
U.S. stocks ended the roller-coaster week on a high note, as a rally in oil prices and calmer currency markets provided a rare boost of confidence. The main benchmarks broke a five-day losing streak, but still ended the fourth-straight week with losses.
S&P 500 SPX, +1.34% closed up 26.75 points, or 1.3%, at 2,019.42, but was down 1.2% over the week. A rally in oil prices lifted energy sector stocks, rising 3.2%, but gains were across the board.
