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Thursday, 29 March 2012

Hong Kong shares end 1.32pc lower

ong Kong shares slipped 1.32 per cent on Thursday, in line with a regional sell-off amid renewed concerns over the global economy.
The Hang Seng Index fell 276.03 points to 20,609.39 on turnover of HK$56.24 billion ($7.20 billion).
The losses follow figures from the US Commerce Department showing a slower-than-expected rise in new orders for manufactured durable goods.
That came after an index of US consumer confidence on Tuesday showed a slip, while home prices continued to fall in January.
The results - added to a cool assessment of the US economy by Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke - come after a run of upbeat jobs data that had lifted hopes the recovery is picking up.
On Wednesday the Dow index fell 0.54 per cent, the S&P 500 lost 0.49 per cent and the Nasdaq gave up 0.49 per cent.
CNOOC tumbled 3.3 per cent to HK$15.92, hit by weaker oil prices after several Western nations said they would look at tapping their reserves to dampen down a recent spike in costs.
Some Hong Kong blue chip developers fell, with Henderson Land falling 3.1 per cent to HK$43.95 and Sino Land dropping 2.7 per cent to HK$12.86.
Chinese shares closed down 1.43 per cent. The Shanghai Composite Index, which covers both A and B shares, ended down 32.72 points to 2,252.16 on turnover of 68.0 billion yuan ($A10.43 billion).
While a string of weak economic figures out of China in the past few months had raised expectations of a loosening of monetary policy, dealers have been left disappointed by Beijing's lack of action so far.
"The market may remain weak in the absence of significant positive policies from Beijing, including supportive policies for boosting consumption," Amy Lin, an analyst at Capital Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires.
Resources shares fell on demand concerns.
Sino Platinum slumped by its 10 per cent daily limit to 17.72 yuan, while Jiangxi Copper fell 3.40 per cent to 23.85 yuan.
Oil shares also dropped, with Sinopec down 1.66 per cent to 7.13 yuan and PetroChina 1.62 per cent lower at 9.71 yuan.

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Vacancies data show no sign of jobs pickup

The small rise in the number of job vacancies reported on Thursday is not enough to provide real hope that a solid pickup in jobs growth is under way.

The flip side of that is that there is still a good chance of an interest rate cut in the coming few months.
Data from the three-monthly survey by Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed the number of job vacancies across the nation rose by 0.3 per cent between November and February, but was still down by 4.1 per cent from a year earlier.
Vacancies in the mining sector were up by 22.2 per cent over the 12-month period, but still only accounted for one in 20 vacancies, so that was not enough to offset falls averaging 5.2 per cent outside the booming mining industry.
The figures can be combined with employment and unemployment data from the labour force survey to generate indicators of demand for labour.
They generally show a flat trend.
In February, there 28.8 vacancies for every 100 people officially unemployed.
A year ago, that measure was reading 31.5 vacancies per 100 jobless.
Another way of looking at it is the number of unemployed per vacancy, which rose to 3.5 from 3.2 a year before.
The number of vacancies per 100 people already in work was 2.8 in February compared with 3.1 a year before.
Overall, the figures show the labour market is still in much the same state it has been in over the past year.
If anything, jobs have become just that little bit scarcer.
The number of people with jobs has risen marginally - by 22,300 or 0.2 per cent - over the past year and is on a flat trend, according to the ABS estimates.
The flat trend is most likely something of an under-estimate - a recent pick-up im immigration has not yet been factored into the labour force survey's projections of population growth and therefore estimates of employment growth.
But even allowing for that, the trend in employment growth is still weak - much weaker than it has to be to stop unemployment from rising over time.
The vacancies figures suggest we are in for much the same thing in the coming few months at least.
That means pressure on wages growth, a key driver of consumer price inflation, should remain benign.
And it therefore means the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will have a solid argument in favour of loosening the monetary shackles in the coming few months if the run of data continues to show the mining boom is not doing enough to make up for weakness in other sectors.

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