HONG KONG: Asian shares were mixed on Tuesday amid renewed uncertainty over the
eurozone debt crisis after Germany and the European Central Bank dampened hopes
for action to drive down borrowing costs.
Tokyo's Nikkei index shrugged off
the previous day's rally, slipping 0.16 percent as the dollar held on to recent
gains against the yen, underlining a continued shift away from the safe haven
Japanese currency.
Sydney rose 0.44 percent, or 19.1
points, to 4,383.4, while Seoul closed 0.16 percent, or 3.09 points, lower at
1,943.22.
Hong Kong was flat, edging down
4.18 points to close at 20,100.09 as traders shifted focus to a flurry of
corporate earnings reports out this week, while Shanghai closed up 0.54
percent, or 11.31 points, to 2,118.27.
Stock markets in Jakarta, Kuala
Lumpur and Manila were closed for public holidays.
German news weekly Der Spiegel
reported on Sunday that the ECB was considering buying bonds issued by heavily
indebted eurozone countries in a move that would ensure borrowing costs did not
rise beyond a pre-determined level.
But an ECB spokesman brushed
aside the report as "absolutely misleading", while another at the
German finance ministry said such an action would "be very
problematic".
Germany's central bank, the
Bundesbank, said such bond purchases "should be viewed critically and
entail, not least, substantial stability policy risks".
Borrowing costs for Spain and
Italy have shot up towards levels that forced Greece, Portugal and Ireland to
seek a bailout.
"The markets are pretty much
on hold until September, which is the earliest we can expect any meaningful
action from the European Central Bank," Tim Waterer, senior trader at CMC
Markets in Australia, told Dow Jones Newswires.
European markets had advanced in
early trading on the Der Spiegel report but turned down after ECB and German
officials dismissed the story.
US stocks closed flat in quiet
trade that still had enough might to push Apple to become the world's most
valuable company of all time with a total market value of $623.52 billion.
That surpassed the previous
record of $619 billion set by software titan Microsoft in 1999, during the
dot-com boom years.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
slipped 3.56 points to close at 13,271.64.
The S&P 500-stock index lost
a bare 0.03 point to 1,418.13, while the tech-rich Nasdaq edged down 0.38 point
to 3,076.21.
The euro bought $1.2358 and 97.89
yen in Asian trade, compared with $1.2372 and 97.97 yen in New York late
Monday. The dollar eased to 79.33 yen from 79.35 yen in US trade.
In oil markets, New York's main
contract, light sweet crude for delivery in September, gained 20 cents in the
afternoon to $96.17 a barrel while Brent North Sea crude for delivery in
October gained 23 cents to $113.93.
Gold was at $1,625.13 at 0840
GMT, compared to $1,615.20 on Monday.
- AFP/al
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