Regional stocks jump on central banks' response(Hong Kong, Seoul on double digit rise)

Market Watch ^ | 10/30/08 | V. Phani Kumar

[TigerLikesRooster]

Regional stocks jump on central banks' response

China, Taiwan, Hong Kong cut rates; Seoul, Singapore, Fed agree to swaps

By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch

Last update: 12:46 a.m. EDT Oct. 30, 2008

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Asian markets surged Thursday as investors went on a buying spree after central banks responded strongly to slowing economic growth and turmoil in financial markets by reducing interest rates or boosting liquidity of U.S. dollars.

South Korean stocks rocketed and Singaporean shares extended gains into a third straight session after their central banks opened a swap facility with the U.S. Federal Reserve that will give them access to U.S. dollar liquidity of up to $30 billion.

Stocks in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China jumped after their central banks lowered interest rates in moves that coincided with the Fed's half-point rate cut overnight. Tokyo shares were boosted by hopes the Bank of Japan may order a rate cut of its own for the first time since 2001.

South Korean stocks gained the most, with the Kospi soaring12.2% to 1,086.96. Singapore's Straits Times Index surged 7% to 1,788.66.

"South Korea, rightly or wrongly, is viewed as the economy in Asia that would be most vulnerable to capital flight, given its higher level of external debt," said Glenn Maguire, chief economist for Asia at Societe Generale.

"Corporates have had trouble rolling over debt, so I think [the swap agreement is] an appropriate step that will clearly be a positive for Korea," he added.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Symbol	Name	Last Trade	Change	Related Info
^AORD	All Ordinaries	3,957.30 1:10AM ET	151.50 (3.98%)	Components, Chart, More
^SSEC	Shanghai Composite	1,760.17 2:40AM ET	40.36 (2.35%)	Chart, More
^HSI	Hang Seng	13,903.66 2:56AM ET	1,201.59 (9.46%)	Components, Chart, More
^BSESN	BSE 30	9,044.51 Oct 29	36.43 (0.40%)	Chart, More
^JKSE	Jakarta Composite	1,178.41 3:10AM ET	64.78 (5.82%)	Components, Chart, More
^KLSE	KLSE Composite	N/A	0.00 (0.00%)	Components, Chart, More
^N225	Nikkei 225	9,029.76 2:00AM ET	817.86 (9.96%)	Chart, More
^NZ50	NZSE 50	2,762.82 12:31AM ET	17.22 (0.63%)	Components, Chart, More
^STI	Straits Times	1,802.85 3:11AM ET	131.65 (7.88%)	Components, Chart, More
^KS11	Seoul Composite	1,084.72 2:02AM ET	115.75 (11.95%)	Components, Chart, More
^TWII	Taiwan Weighted	4,683.64 1:46AM ET	277.12 (6.29%)	Chart, More

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[GnuHere]

How sad - will we get a market rally in the last few pre-election days?? Looks awful for McCain/Palin!
/s

[bruinbirdman]

"will we get a market rally in the last few pre-election days?? "

DJIA up 675 this week.

yitbos

[ovrtaxt]

after their central banks opened a swap facility with the U.S. Federal Reserve that will give them access to U.S. dollar liquidity of up to $30 billion.

??? Is this our confiscated tax money we're talking about?

[TigerLikesRooster]

U.S. institutions are pulling their investment from S. Korean market. S. Korea's dollar reserve is running short as a result. U.S. signals it will pour in dollars into S. Korean currency reserve if situation deteriorates.

This is a round-about way of your money going into pockets of bleeding financial institutions via S. Korean market.