Asian shares slip as European woes persist

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Asian shares slip as European woes persist

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Positive leads from Wall Street and European markets were unable to provide a lift.

25 May,2012 12:12 pm

Asian markets were mixed Friday and the euro sat at near-two year lows as weak European data added to pessimism after this weeks disappointing summit on saving Greece from leaving the eurozone.Positive leads from Wall Street and European markets were unable to provide a lift as Asian indexes gave up the gains made since the start of the year.Tokyo traded flat, up 0.20 percent, or 17,01 points, to 8,580.39, Sydney eased 0.66 percent, or 26.6 points, at 4,029.2, while Seoul closed 0.53 percent higher, or 9.7 points up, at 1,824.17.In afternoon trade Hong Kong was 0.17 percent lower while Shanghai was down 0.37 percentAs traders digested the outcome of Wednesdays summit in Brussels -- which laid bare the divisions between Germany and France rather than solve Athens problems -- a string of data highlighted the woeful state of Europes economy.The latest surveys of eurozone business confidence showed the worst monthly fall in May for nearly three years, to 45.9 points on the Markit PMI index from 46.7 in April. Anything less than 50 signals a slowdown.In Germany, the backbone of Europes economic might, business confidence fell to a six-month low while a French leading index for manufacturing activity fell to the lowest level for 37 months.And in non-euro member Britain, data showed that the recession was deeper than previously thought, with the economy shrinking 0.3 percent between January and March, worse than the prior estimate for a 0.2-percent contraction.The euro bought $1.2540 and 99.87 yen in early Asian trade, compared with $1.2532 and 99.74 yen in New York late Thursday. The common currency sank to $1.2516 in New York, its lowest since July 2010.The dollar was trading at 79.65 yen against 79.59 yen.Global investors are increasingly concerned that Greece will end up exiting the euro as a June 17 election is expected to see a win for anti-austerity parties who have said they will tear up a bailout deal signed with the EU and International Monetary Fund.Investors still have very little confidence in the stock market and financial markets as a whole because of whats happening in Europe, said Francis Lun, managing director at Lyncean Securities.The fallout from Greeces possible exit from the euro would be catastrophic for the market, he told Dow Jones Newswires.The talks on Wednesday ended with German Chancellor Angela Merkel facing down calls for jointly pooled eurozone debt, or eurobonds, from a growing number of her peers, led by newly-elected French President Francois Hollande.Despite the gloomy picture in Europe the Dow on Wall Street rose 0.27 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index fell 0.38 percent and the S&P 500 gained 0.14 percent.And European markets also closed higher, with Londons FTSE up 1.59 percent, the DAX 30 in Frankfurt adding 0.48 percent and Paris CAC 40 up 1.16 percent.New Yorks main contract, West Texas Intermediate crude for delivery in July was down two cents to $90.64 per barrel while Brent North Sea crude for July shed 23 cents to $106.32 in the afternoon.Gold was at $1,553.62 an ounce at 0615 GMT, compared with $1,566.30 late Thursday.In other markets:-- Taipei fell 53.26 points, or 0.75 percent, to 7,071.63.HTC shed 3.95 percent to Tw$413.0 while TSMC was 0.74 percent lower at Tw$80.0.-- Wellington was down 0.28 percent, or, 9.956 points, at 3486.231.