Asian stocks – particularly financials – on Monday followed Friday’s rallies in US and European markets, surging for a second trading day as investors applauded the speed and degree of the US intervention to buy $700bn worth of nonperforming assets and Australia and Taiwan followed US and European regulators in restricting the short sale of equities, reports Bloomberg. IN China, Bank of China led a jump in Chinese shares after regulators made it easier for companies to buy back stock. In currencies, however, analysts said the US bail-out plan may derail the dollar’s three-month rally as investors weigh the costs of the rescue. The combination of spending $700bn on soured mortgage-related assets and providing $400bn to guarantee money-market mutual funds will boost US borrowing as much as $1,000bn, according to one estimate. Crude oil meanwhile rose further in weekend trading after surging nearly 7% on Sept. 19 to $104.55 a barrel, capping a three-day, 15% rally. Here are the numbers:
US markets (Fri)
DJIA up 368.75 at 11,388.44
Nasdaq up 74.80 at 2,273.90
S&P500 up 48.57 at 1,255.08
Asian markets (Mon)
05:18am BST
Nikkei up 172.50 at 12,093.36
Topix up 18.93 at 1,168.05
Hang Seng up 250.62 at 19,578.35
European markets (Fri)
FTSE100 up 431.34 at 5,311.33
Eurofirst 300 up 87.16 at 1,150.78
Currencies
05.16am BST
€/$ 1.4510 (1.4210)
$/Y 106.49 (106.86)
£/$ 1.8330 (1.8049)
Commodities
Brent Crude (Nov08) up $0.90 at $100.51
Light Crude (Nov08) up $0.76 at $103.51
3M Copper 24HR down $20.00 at $7,020.00
100 Oz Gold (Dec8) up $2.60 at $867.30
10-year government bond yields (%)
US 3.78 (3.60)
UK 4.59 (4.41)
Germany 4.23 (4.01)
Japan 1.50 (1.51)
Sources: FT, Reuters