Asian stocks swung between gains and losses after the biggest rally in three weeks, as investors await data on Chinese industrial production. Health care and telecommunication shares led declines and energy companies rose.
Shimizu Corp. (1803) gained 3 percent in Tokyo after Credit Suisse Group AG analysts advised buying shares of the building contractor. QBE Insurance Group Ltd. (QBE) led declines on the regional benchmark index, dropping a second day after Australia’s largest insurer by market value forecast an unexpected loss of about $250 million. Doosan Infracore Co. (042670) sank 2.5 percent in Seoul as the construction-equipment manufacturer plans to start selling 40 million new shares.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slid 0.1 percent to 140.45 at 10:53 a.m. in Hong Kong, having risen as much as 0.1 percent earlier. The gauge jumped 0.8 percent yesterday, the most since Nov. 18. Growth in Chinese industrial production probably held above 10 percent for a fourth month in November, according to economists surveyed before a report due today. Thai markets are closed for a holiday with the prime minister ordering new elections amid political unrest.
“Don’t let the bumps in the road force you out of your equities positions,” Michael Shaoul, chief executive officer of Marketfield Asset Management LLC, which oversees about $17 billion, told Bloomberg TV. “Between now and the end of the bull market, there’s a lot of upside. You need to avoid the temptation to be panicked if we have a difficult period. This is a time when you want to remain patient with equities.”
Regional Gauges
Japan’s Topix index lost 0.1 percent and South Korea’s Kospi index dropped 0.3 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 0.4 percent and New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index declined 0.1 percent. Singapore’s Straits Times Index and Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.2 percent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.3 percent and China’s Shanghai Composite rose less than 0.1 percent. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of mainland firms listed in Hong Kong slid 0.5 percent. The measure climbed 29 percent from this year’s low on June 25 through yesterday, extending gains after China unveiled reform plans.
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 0.1 percent today. The gauge yesterday climbed 0.2 percent to a record as investors weighed the timing of any cuts to Federal Reserve monetary support amid budget negotiations in Washington.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 8.7 percent this year through yesterday to trade at 13.9 times estimated earnings compared with multiples of 16.3 for the S&P 500 and 14.9 for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Asia-Pacific benchmark fell 1.8 percent last week.
Pimco Forecast
Pacific Investment Management Co. said global economic growth will accelerate next year. Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive officer at Pimco, whose firm has $1.97 trillion in assets under management, said the world economy is likely to expand by between 2.5 percent and 3 percent in 2014, up from 2.3 percent this year.
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard, a voter on policy this year, said the odds of tapering bond purchases have risen along with gains in the labor market, and any reduction should be modest to account for low inflation.
More than $8 trillion has been added to the value of global equities this year, the most since 2009, as central banks took steps to shore up economies worldwide. The Federal Open Market Committee will probably begin cutting stimulus at its Dec. 17-18 meeting, according to 34 percent of economists surveyed Dec. 6 by Bloomberg, an increase from 17 percent in a Nov. 8 survey.
Japan Stimulus
Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda helped drive a 46 percent surge in Japan’s Topix this year with unprecedented monetary easing as he and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sought to jolt the nation out of 15 years of deflation. The Topix is the best performing of 24 developed-market indexes tracked by Bloomberg.
Shimizu added 3 percent to 481 yen in Tokyo after Credit Suisse upgraded its recommendation to outperform.
QBE declined 8 percent to A$11.04 in Sydney, extending yesterday’s 22 percent slump. Confidence in QBE management is “shaken,” Sydney-based CIMB Group Holdings analyst Richard Coles wrote in a report, cutting his earnings-per-share estimate 24 percent for 2014.
Doosan Infracore lost 2.5 percent to 11,500 won in Seoul. The share price is retreating ahead of issuing global depositary receipts, Choi Won Kyung, Seoul-based analyst at Kiwoom Securities, said by phone today. The company is due to sell 40 million shares that will be listed in Singapore.
To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Haigh in Sydney at ahaigh1@bloomberg.net
