YEREVAN, August 14. /ARKA/. Asia’s benchmark stocks index swung between gains and losses amid low trading volumes as Hong Kong canceled trading due to a typhoon and earnings at Leighton Holdings Ltd. missed estimates.
Leighton, Australia’s largest builder, sank 5.6 percent. Hokuetsu Kishu Paper Co. dropped 4.9 percent after Japan’s No. 3 paper maker by market value cut its profit forecast. Computershare Ltd. sank 5.9 percent in Sydney, the most in two years, after the share-registry firm reported profit fell. Tata Steel Ltd., India’s biggest producer, gained 4.4 percent after posting its best quarterly earnings in two years.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slid 0.1 percent to 134.90 as of 12:17 p.m. in Hong Kong, reversing an increase of as much as 0.4 percent. Eight of the 10 industry groups fell on the gauge, which rose for past four days, its longest stretch of gains in six weeks.
“Investors are on holiday so the market is much quieter than usual,” said Seiichiro Iwamoto, who helps oversee about $33 billion at Mizuho Asset Management Co. in Tokyo. “Until about the fall, when we get further policy decisions from Abe’s government, I don’t think the market is going to have a strong direction.”
Japan’s Topix index sank 0.3 percent. Daily trading volume on the Topix fell to the lowest this year on Aug. 12 and remained near that level yesterday, with fewer than 2 billion shares changing hands during the summer vacation. Volume today was 20 percent below its 30-day average for the time of day. –0–
