Thursday's Asia ADR Recap
Indian stocks jumped higher Thursday after government inflation readings backed off from three-year highs. India's wholesale price index rose to 7.14% in the 12 months ending April 5, compared with the prior week's rise of 7.41% and just shy of consensus forecasts of 7.19%. India's central bank also announced it's raising its cash reserve ratio to 8% from 7.5% in two phases ending on May 10.
"The action had to be done immediately and it has been done. The Reserve Bank of India's intention is to squeeze out the current liquidity," said Krish Ramkumar, of Sundaram BNP Paribas Asset Management.
Dealers in the region said the equity rally was sparked by short-covering with bearish traders heavily positioned for a higher inflation number. The Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark 30-stock Sensex Index rose 237 points, or 1.5%, to 16,481 points. Indian equity markets will be closed Friday for a public holiday.
Bangalore-based information technology company
Wipro Limited
(WIT) - Get Report
and U.S. software giant
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Report
announced an expansion of their strategic alliance with the launch of two Wipro Centers of Excellence to display Microsoft technologies at Wipro's centers in Bangalore and Mysore, according to a company press release. American depositary shares of Wipro fell 1.1% to $11.79.
Indian telecom service provider
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam
(MTE)
said it will offer free downloadable software developed by
Micro Technologies
that will help customers track stolen mobile phones, according to
newslocale.org
. The software called Lost Mobile Tracking Systems (LMTS) can be installed on more than 250 models of mobile handsets and will debut its launch in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane. Shares of MTE finished essentially flat at $5.14.
According to a report from
autoindia.com
, India's auto giant and largest truck maker,
Tata Motors
(TTM) - Get Report
, is planning to bring to market a crossover vehicle. Sources close to the situation said the new vehicle will compete against
Toyota Motor's
(TM) - Get Report
Innova and
General Motors'
(GM) - Get Report
Chevrolet Tavera and will be produced at its plant in Pune. A Tata Motors spokesperson said, "The company, as per policy, does not share information on future product launches." Shares of Tata Motors finished essentially flat at $15.56.
In the Indian financial sector,
Icici Bank's
(IBN) - Get Report
CEO Kandapur Kamath said the banking giant wasn't planning on listing its brokerage division Icici Securities any time soon. "We will look at it at an appropriate time," Kamath said to reporters at a banking conference in Mumbai, according to
reuters.com
. Kamath also said that Icici Bank would wait for the Reserve Bank's policy statement before making any decisions on its interest rates. The Reserve Bank is set to release its policy statement on April 29. Shares of Icici dropped 1.5% to $41.25
Be sure to check out the
at Stockpickr.com every night to find out which stocks in India and China are making big moves and announcing major news.
China Recap
Stocks in Hong Kong ignored the central bank's decision to raise the reserve requirement ratio Thursday and rallied higher while shares in mainland China fell to the lowest level in more than a year. Late Wednesday, The People's Bank of China announced it plans to raise the reserve requirement ratio by 50 basis points on April 25 in an effort to cool off the supply of liquidity to major lenders. Dealers in the Far East said stocks in Hong Kong are now tracking the U.S. stock market momentum and investor sentiment is turning more bullish.
"The (China) central bank's latest move signals that there is no pressing need for additional monetary tightening other than raising the reserve requirement ratio," said Wilson Wong, an analyst at Tai Fook Securities.
Stocks in mainland China continued to slide lower after some leading power companies issued profit warnings. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 68.85 points, or 2.1%, to 3,222.74, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped higher by 380.61 points, or 1.6%, to 24,258.96.
Chinese alternative energy company
ReneSola
(SOL) - Get Report
fell 2.5% Thursday despite raising its 2008 guidance and closing a six-year wafer supply deal. The company said full-year production output for 2008 will now come in between 310 and 320 megawatts (MW), vs. previous estimates of 300 MW. Net revenue for 2008 is expected to come in between the range of $530 million to $550 million, vs. Wall Street estimates of $521.6 million. ReneSola also singed a six-year wafer supply contract with
Shenzhen Topray Solar
. American depositary shares of ReneSola finished down 39 cents at $15.08.
The bullish forecast out of ReneSola did little to help the rest of the Chinese solar complex. Shares of solar leaders fell across the board, led by
Canadian Solar
(CSIQ) - Get Report
, which dropped 7.2% to $25.85;
Suntech Power
(STP)
, which slipped 6.2% to $44.45;
SolarFun Power
( SOLF), which fell 4.3% to $14.62; and
Trina Solar
(TSL)
, which slid 4.1% to $42.72.
Chinese residential real estate developer
Xinyuan Real Estate
(XIN) - Get Report
announced it has bagged the 2008 top 100 Chinese real estate companies award by the China real estate top 10 committee. The company also received the 2008 top 100 Chinese real estate companies with greatest growth potential award. Shares of Xinyuan rose sharply by 6.2% to $10.11.
Chinese business software provider
CDC
( CHINA) announced its CDC Software division expects to report revenue for the first-quarter of 2008 between the range of $84.6 million to $85.6 million, which would represent a record first-quarter number and a 12% jumped from $76.2 million for the first quarter of 2007. Software licensing revenues are expected to be $12 million, which would be a 15% fall from $14.2 million for the first quarter of 2007. Shares of CDC fell 4% to $3.78 on slightly higher-than-average volume.
Be sure to check out the
at Stockpickr.com every night to find out which stocks in India and China are making big moves and announcing major news.
For more on Asia, check out
Daniel Harrison's coverage
at
TheStreet.com
.
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