Wednesday's Asia ADR Recap
Updated from 5:38 p.m. EDT
Indian stocks advanced Wednesday as technology majors continued to show momentum a day after information technology leader
Infosys Technologies
(INFY) - Get Infosys Limited American Depositary Shares Report
posted strong fourth-quarter earnings and provided a bullish full-year forecast.
Dealers in the Far East said that investor sentiment is improving, backed by the strong follow-through performance in technology shares. Market players are becoming more confident that a tradable bottom is now in place for Indian equity markets as volatility subsides and the markets return to focusing on fundamentals.
The Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark 30-stock Sensex Index finished up 90.5 points, or 0.6%, at 16,244.
Bangalore-based information technology company
Wipro Limited
(WIT) - Get Wipro Limited Report
announced it will be partnering with Credit Suisse in the design and operation of a human resource service center in Wroclaw, Poland. Under the terms of the agreement, Wipro will provide support to more than 20,000 Credit Suisse employees located in Switzerland, according to
dnaindia.com
. American depositary shares of Wipro, which trade on the
NYSE
, finished up 2.9% at $11.93.
Indian technology ADRs continued to add to gains Wednesday as investors hoped for more bullish earnings reports out of the sector.
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Patni Computer Systems
(PTI) - Get Proteostasis Therapeutics, Inc. Report
led the group, trading up 6.2% to $13.54; Infosys added 3% to $40.88; and
Cognizant Technology Solutions
(CTSH) - Get Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation Report
jumped 2.3% to $30.
Leading Indian communications provider
Tata Communications
( TCL) announced it has won two awards at the 2008 Nemertes Pilot House Awards, which was held during the FutureNet conference in Boston. Tata was recognized in two "emerging carrier" categories for best technology innovation: customer experience and MPLS services, according to a company press release Shares of Tata added 2.8% to $24.50.
Among the big gainers for Indian ADRs Wednesday were
HDFC Bank
(HDB) - Get HDFC Bank Limited Report
, which jumped 5% to $103;
Icici Bank
(IBN) - Get ICICI Bank Limited Report
, which added 4.2% to $41.91; and
Sterlite Industries
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, which traded up 3.7% to $21.
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
Chinese stocks slipped Wednesday on concerns over inflation at 11-year highs and slowing economic growth. Dealers in the region said official data on inflation and growth did little to calm the nerves of local market players.
Chinese government data showed that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 10.6% in the January-March period from a year earlier, vs. 11.2% in the last three months of 2007. China's GDP growth for all of 2007 was 11.9%. China's consumer price index fell to 8.3% in March from a year earlier, down marginally from 8.7% in February. The measure of producer prices spiked 8% in March, vs. 6.6% in February.
"A view that the Chinese government might raise interest rates to control inflation and fixed investments pulled down the Shanghai market and had a spillover impact on the Hong Kong market," said Eric Yuen, head of research at Dao Heng Securities.
The Shanghai Composite Index added 51.7 points, or 1.6%, to 3,348, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 23 points, or 0.1%, to 23,878.
Chinese alternative energy company
Trina Solar
(TSL)
surged higher by 4.9% after Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst Mehdi Hosseini upgraded the stock to market perform from underperform and raised his price target to $48 from $25, citing Trina's decision to cancel plans for a $1 billion polysilicon plant. Hosseini also bumped up his 2008 revenue numbers to $794 million from $716 million. American depositary shares of Tata finished up $2.08 at $44.55.
Leading Chinese online game developer
Shanda Interactive
( SNDA) announced it has granted an exclusive right to India-based
Zapak Digital Entertainment
to operate its online racing game Crazy Kart in India. The deal marks a milestone for Shanda, its first commercial launch into the Indian market. Shares of Shanda ripped higher by 7% to $28.37.
Chinese oil and natural gas behemoth
Cnooc
announced it has taken an 80% stake in private oil company
Hangzhou Kangbo Petroleum
, according to
Xinhua News Agency
. Hangzhou Kangbo operates three gasoline stations and an oil depot in east China's Zhejiang Province. "Cnooc plans to build 1,000 gasoline stations and oil depots in Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and Bohai Rim by 2010," said Li Maolin, managing director of the company's refining and petrochemical unit. Shares of Cnooc rose 5.8% to $172.
Elsewhere in the Chinese energy sector,
Huaneng Power International
(HNP) - Get Huaneng Power Intl Report
said its first-quarter net profit will decrease by over 50% compared to the same period last year due to the sharp rise in thermal coal prices. China's largest electricity operator also said total power generation came in at 46.1 billion kilowatt-hours from January to March, which is an increase of over 18% over the same period last year. Shares of HNP dropped 3.5% to $26.53 on the news.
Chinese Internet stocks were in play Wednesday as investors bid up shares ahead of
Google's
(GOOG) - Get Alphabet Inc. Report
earnings report set for Thursday. Market players are hoping a strong report out of Google will bode well for the entire global Internet complex.
Sohu.com
(SOHU) - Get Sohu.com Limited Report
ripped higher by 10% to $55.11;
SINA
(SINA) - Get SINA Corp. Report
jumped 10.2% to $39.81; and
Baidu.com
(BIDU) - Get Baidu Inc. Report
surged 10% to $317.75.
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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