Hong Kong projects its economy will contract in the first half of
2009 as consumers reign in spending. Consumers are reining in spending amid rising unemployment and expectations that many companies will freeze wages this year and because their wealth is being eroded by falling property prices and a near 50-percent drop in the local stock market last year.
But Asian stocks pushed higher as investors looked for U.S. President-elect
Barack Obama, set to take office on Tuesday, to quickly roll out hefty
economic stimulus spending and a revived plan to buy bad bank ets.
Japan’s Nikkei average gained 0.3 percent, helped by a broad dip in the yen that gave a boost to shares of major exporting companies.
Shares of Honda Motor Corp were the second-biggest gainer.
South Korea’s KOSPI rose 1.4 percent, leading gains in the region as battered technology shares advanced on hopes the industry downturn may have hit a bottom.
Data showed PC sales in Asia fell 5 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, the region’s first such decline in a decade as the global downturn sapped demand.
Traditional safe havens — the dollar, government bonds and gold — backtracked as investors shifted into riskier ets.
The falling price of metal and slowing demand may see BHP Billiton closing a big nickel mine in Australia.
The news comes as China’s Chinalco ’08 profit falls more than 50 percent
because of slowing demand for aluminium.
Duration : 0:1:29
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