ASIA STILL NERVOUS DESPITE RATE CUTS - A day after major world economies cut interest rates and made huge capital injections in an attempt to steady capital markets, Asian stock markets are largely higher and trade there is less volatile.
This morning Tokyo's Nikkei closed just a touch lower, having been higher for most of the trading day following yesterday's near 10% crash. In Hong Kong this morning the Hang Seng is 2.6% higher.
Andrew Wood, Asia markets and investment correspondent for the Financial Times, said some of the optimism sparked by interest rate cuts across the world appeared to have run out. He pointed out that Australian stock markets had fallen despite a full percentage point drop in interest rates in the country.
There have been protests in Hong Kong by people claiming they were mis-sold financial products. Mr Wood said many people in Hong Kong were bitter about having been sold financial products linked to derivatives, claiming they had not been informed about the risks involved. He said there were fewer consumer protection rules on the selling of financial products in Asia, though he said there was an element of greed involved, as people did not want to be left out as the stock markets surged last year.
Mr Wood said the Chinese markets were calmer at the moment, as the country's economy was a little disconnected from the world due to controls on the movement in capital.
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NEWS IN BRIEF - Maurice Pratt, the chief executive of drinks company C&C, resigned this morning. He said that the company repositioning strategy he had tried to deliver over the last two years did not meet the expectations he had set for the business.
