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Alexkid

Asian markets rise, brushing off China rate hike
PAMELA SAMPSON
(The Associated Press)



06:06:51AM (DST) Thursday 7.7.11

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian markets managed modest gains Thursday, shrugging off a weak U.S. growth report and an interest rate hike in China.

Oil prices rose above $97 a barrel as a report showed U.S. crude supply fell more than expected last week, suggesting demand is improving. The dollar slipped against the euro and the yen.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.7 percent to 22,666.48 and South Korea's Kospi was 0.5 percent higher to 2,181.35. Benchmarks in Australia, Singapore and Indonesia were also higher, while those in the Philippines, Taiwan and New Zealand fell.

Japan's Nikkei 225 recoiled 0.3 percent to 10,055.91, a day after hitting its highest level since the country was battered by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11 that killed tens of thousands of people and sent the economy reeling.

Japanese exporters dipped on a strengthening yen, which makes products that are sent overseas more expensive. Honda Motor Corp. lost 1.1 percent while Toshiba Corp. lost 1.2 percent.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics lost 1.5 percent after the company said its profits slumped in the second quarter as strong performance in fast-growing smartphones could not overcome weakness in liquid crystal displays.

Investors chose to brave the headwinds — including the downgrade by Moody's of Portugal's credit rating to "junk" status late Tuesday and another interest rate hike by China's central bank — in search of attractive prices. The rate hike was even seen by some as a positive step toward fighting inflation.

China has been raising interest rates at roughly two-month intervals since October 2010. But Wednesday's hike came three months after the prior one, indicating that China was taking a more gradual approach toward trying to tamp down spiraling prices.

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* Must be misreading this but I get a sense of market battling between Asia and China.
Marks and bruises are being left. *

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