Asian markets add decent gains

Steady gains emerge despite retreat in the US economic data

Asian markets ended mostly higher amid choppy trades with the select benchmark indices adding decent gains amid an overall thin activity. Weak US economic data failed to trigger a sell off and traders were mostly engaged in buying the index-linked counters ahead of the year-end. Nothing much was there on the economic front in Asia and the latest spate of sell off following the China rate hike over the weekends seemed to have wore off. In the overnight trades, the US markets ended slightly higher even as the weak economic data hurt the sentiments.



Consumer confidence in the US unexpectedly dropped in December, pulling back off the five-month high it set in November. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index fell to 52.5 in December from an upwardly revised 54.3 in November. US Home prices slid lower in October, reflecting that the painful adjustment in the troubled sector continues despite the visible recovery in the economy elsewhere. The report showed that the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index fell at an annual rate of 0.8 percent in October.

The Japanese markets edged higher on exporters and steady gained emerged in the stocks. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index added 51.91 points, or 0.5%, to close at 10,344.54. Japanese automakers ended mixed after the downbeat US consumer confidence data.

In Australia, mild selling pressure was witnessed in the resource stocks as traders covered some profits ahead of the year-end. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 Index dropped 2.10 points, or 0.04% to close at 4,775 points. The mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto fell more than 1% on the day.

In China, stocks gained for the for the first time in six days as bargain hunting emerged and pulled the markets up from what was the longest slide in five months for the Shanghai Composite index. The barometer index rebounded 0.7% to 2751.50 points in thin trading today following a nearly 4 percent drop over the past two days as property developers and banks turned out to be the leaders.

In India, the key benchmark indices staged a strong rally one day ahead of the expiry of the near-month derivatives contract, snapping last two days' losses, helped by firm global stocks. The market breadth was strong. All the thirteen sectoral indices on BSE were in green. The barometer index BSE Sensex hit 1-1/2-month high in intraday moves and ended with a sharp gain of 230.61 points, or 1.15%, at 20,256. The broader Nifty index climbed 64.35 points, or 1.07%, to close at 6,060.35.

In other markets, South Korea's Seoul Composite added 0.50%, Singapore's Straits Times surged 0.76% while Taiwan's Taiex dropped 0.05%. Hang Seng also added 1.36%. US dollar was mixed after rebounding from a 10 session low against the Euro yesterday. Gold stayed from above $1400 per ounce while crude oil futures delivery stayed above $91 per barrel but dropped by nearly half a cent on the day as traders awaited for the US weekly inventories data.