Asia 270409 Afternoon Briefing

Hi All,

As per discussed this morning, we did see technical sell off in HSI in the morning as it went down approximately 1%, while ASX rallied up 1.5% in the morning. Banks did lead the run with MQG up approximately 1.5% for the morning session, along with oil stocks. Spoecial mention goes to NIDO Petroleum (NDO.ax) that went up 16.16%.

However, swine flu effect took the market lower as market fears loom over the effect of swine flu taking recession deeper amongst the globe. Extended morning session saw Asia Pacific in general tanked, taking the market to the lows of the day. Swine flu and China slamming breaks on loan growth may have took HK financials to the low of the day, with China Insurance down 5.51%, while ICBC down 5.85% despite earnings forecast beaten estimates. Metals also went lower with industrial metals going red into the day.

Japan and Aussie took a late rally from financials, taking both market ending pretty much flat. As per Dive2Blue discussed, pharmaceuticals took the leading start for the week, while defensives also played out strong on the market, while HK went 2.74% down into the reds.

As we have always discussed, the precious metal play has been paying off the last week, and has reached our exit point. This sums up our Lihir Gold play with a net pay of about 5%.

We continue to maintain a bearish overtone over the sentiment, and questions whether the situation now is signaling the resumation of the bear market. We will continue to blog on this aspect throughout the week, but again, as to reiterate, we believe this is a bearish overtone on the market!

Anyhows, thats it for the day! Happy trading!

ongy out.