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Thursday 20th of November 2008
August 1, 2007

Global markets mostly lower again


by Elaine Frei
Global markets mostly lower again

Equities markets in the Asia-Pacific region dropped sharply on Wednesday. Taiwan’s Taiex index saw the worst of the losses, dropping 4.26 percent to 8,891.88. The Kospi index in South Korea and India’s Sensex weren’t far behind, with losses of 3.97 percent to 1,856.45 and 3.96 percent to 14,935.77 respectively. In China, the Shanghai Composite fell 3.81 percent to 4,300.56, while the Straits Times index dropped by the same percentage to 3,431.71 in Singapore.

The Australian markets were also lower, with the S&P/ASX200 down 3.3 percent to 5,941.2 and the Sydney Ordinaries falling 3.2 percent to 5,989.4. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was 3.15 percent lower to 22,455.36. Tokyo’s major indices actually saw the least of the losses in the region as the Nikkei 225 and the Topix index each dropped 2.19 percent, to 16,870.98 and 1,668.85 respectively. However, the Mother’s market of small and mid-caps dropped 3.79 percent to 831.92

European markets also headed lower again after yesterday’s gains. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 dropped 1.54 percent to 1,526.07. In Frankfurt the Dax was 1.45 percent lower to 7,473.93, while the IBEX fell 1.46 percent to 14, 586.1 in Madrid and the Paris CAC-40 was down 1.68 percent to 5,654.3. London also saw declines. The FTSE 100 dropped 1.72 percent to 6,250.6, while the FTSE 250 fell 1.26 percent to 11,194.9

Trading was volatile on Wall Street during the session. At just past midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 were all slightly higher, but by just before 2 p.m. New York time the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.32 percent to 2,538.06 and the S&P 500 had dropped 0.18 percent to 1,452.71. The Dow remained slightly higher, up 0.14 percent to 13,229.95.

Crude oil prices were lower as new US inventories reports showed that while crude stockpiles dropped by 6.5 million barrels last week, gasoline inventories were up by 600,000 barrels and distillates in storage added 2.8 million barrels as refinery utilization grew to 93.6 percent of capacity

Prices for precious metals, meanwhile, declined as well.

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