27.08.2008 12:32

Stock market: Tuesday summary

Stock market fixing:
Nikkei -99.95 -0.8% 12,778.71
Topix -9.90 -0.8% 1,229.35
FTSE -34.90 -0.63% 5,470.70
CAC +12.68 +0.29% 4,368.55
DAX +43.57 +0.69% 6,340.52
DOW +26.62 +0.23% 11,412.87
NASDAQ -3.62 -0.15% 2,361.97
S&P 500 +4.67 +0.37% 1,271.51
10yr Note -0.0700 -0.018% 3.784%
NYMEX Crude Oil +1.16 +1.01% 116.27
Gold +2.40 +0.29% 828.10

Japan's stocks dropped the most in a week, led by financial companies, after HSBC Holdings Plc said real estate failures will increase bad loans at regional banks.
Fukuoka Financial Group Inc., Japan's second-largest regional lender by assets, and Suruga Bank Ltd. slumped after HSBC cut their ratings. Developer Asahi Homes Co. plunged 28%, its sharpest drop in six years, after its largest shareholder filed for bankruptcy. Shimamura Co. led declines by retailers after reporting slower sales.
Fukuoka Financial slumped 4%. Suruga Bank dropped 3.4%. Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan's largest brokerage, fell 2.1%. Orix Corp., Japan's largest non-bank financial company, lost 2.7%.
Asahi Homes plunged 28%, the biggest drop since September 2002. Parent company Sebon Corp. filed for bankruptcy with debt at 60 times its capital, it said yesterday after markets shut. Bankruptcies among property companies more than doubled to 60 in July from a year earlier, according to Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd.

European stocks rose as U.S. reports that showed consumer confidence climbed more than forecast and home sales rebounded overshadowed concern that the U.K. and German economies are slowing.
UBS AG, the European bank hardest hit by the subprime contagion, gained 1.5%, and Nokia Oyj, the world's biggest mobile-phone maker, climbed 2.9%. Alcatel-Lucent SA, the world's largest supplier of fixed-line phone networks, advanced 4.7% as the euro's drop to a six-month low against the dollar boosted the value of European companies' overseas sales.
UBS, the biggest Swiss bank, gained 1.5%. Nokia rallied 2.9%.
Earlier today, the Munich-based Ifo institute said its business climate index declined to 94.8 in August from 97.5 the previous month. Economists had predicted a drop to 97.2. German consumer confidence sank to the lowest in more than five years as soaring energy prices sapped purchasing power and the economic outlook deteriorated, another report showed today.

Stocks ended mixed on Tuesday after Wall Street moved in opposition to crude prices for most of the session and a slew of housing and economic reports left markets at a draw.

One housing report showed home prices tumbled more than 15% in the second quarter and a government report showed the number of new homes sold in July was still more than 30% behind the same month last year.
Stocks did not react strongly to the negative economic reports because "things Financial news: The FDIC, one of the regulators of the nation's banking system, published its second quarter reading on the banking industry and the agency's so-called "problem bank" list grew to 117, up from 90 banks in the first quarter. The number of banks on the "problem list" has increased since Americans started having trouble paying their mortgage payments.
The Commerce Department said sales of new one-family houses were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 515,000 in July, up 2.4% from the June rate of 503,000, which had been revised lower. While the July reading ticked up from the prior month, the measure still stands 35.5% below the same month a year ago.
The Conference Board said that its reading on consumer confidence increased again in August, after making modest gains in July. The index stood at 56.9, which was higher than the reading of 53 that economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast.
Fed minutes: The government released the minutes from its meeting on Aug. 5 of the Federal Open Market Committee when the central bank decided to leave the key interest rate unchanged at 2%.