2/14/2012 10:18 PM ET
(RTTNews) – Asian stock markets are mostly trading higher on Wednesday following media reports that Greek conservative party leader Antonis Samaras is expected to deliver a letter of commitment to the country’s international lenders on Wednesday morning. Samaras, who will likely become Greece’s next prime minister after April elections, had previously indicated that he would want the Greek bailouts to be renegotiated if he were elected.
Buoyed by a weaker yen on the back of likely monetary easing measures by the Bank of Japan, the Japanese market opened higher on Wednesday with shares from from automobile and electronic machinery sections posting some solid gains.
Financial, insurance, steel, non-ferrous metal stocks too are mostly trading higher. Gas, communications, oil and chemical stocks are trading mixed.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index is currently trading at 9,146.6, up 94.5 points or 1 percent from its previous close.
Mazda Motor, up 6.3 percent, is the top gainer in the Nikkei index. Toyota Motor is gaining over 3 percent, while Honda Motor, Nissan Motor and Suzuki Motor are trading higher by 2 to 2.5 percent. Isuzu Motors and Hino Motors are also trading notably higher, while Mitsubishi Motor is trading lower by about 1 percent.
Shinsei Bank, SMFG, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Mizuho Financial and Aozora Bank are up 1.3 to 3 percent. Bank of Yokohama is trading modestly higher, while Chiba Bank is down in negative territory with a loss of 1.2 percent.
Kawasaki Kisen is up nearly 6 percent and Fuji Heavy Industries is trading higher by about 5.5 percent. Sony Financial Holdings, Heiwa Real Estate, Mitsui OSK Lines, Tokio Marine, Nomura Holdings, Kansai Electric Power, Komatsu, Mitsui Fudosan, Fanuc and Denso Corp. are up 3 to 5 percent.
Advantest, Mitsubishi Estate, Fujifilm Holding, Nippon Yusen, Panasonic Corp, Hitachi Construction Machinery, Konica Minolta, Sony Corp and Yokohama Rubeer are all trading higher by over 2.5 percent.
Elpida Memory Inc., Japan’s sole maker of memory chips, plunged 21 percent after saying that it still has not secured enough financing to stay in business as an April debt deadline approaches.
Yahoo Japan is trading lower by over 4 percent. Showa Shell is down with a loss of 2.6 percent. Nitto Boseki, Tokyo Tatemono and Tosoh Corp are among the other notable losers.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the mid-78 yen level in early deals in Tokyo. The yen is currently trading at 78.62 to the U.S. dollar.
The Australian market is trading weak with investors pressing sales following a weak U.S. retail sales report. Worries about the European economy on the back of recent downgrades by ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service and concerns about Greek debt are also hurting sentiment to a notable extent.
