Asian Market Overview of November 18

Sydney, Nov 18, 2009 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Asian bourses opened mixed on Thursday after Wall Street posted a small gain overnight. US dollar's rebound provides an excuse for investors to lock in profits from the recent rallies. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index pared its early gains this morning after a touch of a fresh 15 month high. Tokyo stocks fell on jitters over a series of corporate fund raising plans.

US President Barack Obama will conclude his first visit to China and fly to Korea today. Chinese government didn't announce any new commitment on currency policy after Chinese President Hu Jintao met with Mr. Obama. The hope on appreciation of yuan in a short term could be eased despite European and Asian countries complained that China has an unfair advantage. US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner took a softer tone on China's currency at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Tuesday.

Company News

U.S. private equity firm TPG is prepared to invest as much as 100 billion yen in Japan Airlines (TYO:9205) as part of a tie-up between JAL and American Airlines. The TPG investment would be made in the form of a private placement of JAL stock. But today shares in JAL fell to their lowest level since their 2002 re-listing as Japan's transport minister commented he had never said a court-led bankruptcy for the troubled airline was impossible.

Japan's Ministop Co. (TYO:9946), an Aeon Co. (TYO:8267) group convenience store chain operator, is considering purchasing South Korean convenience store chain operator Buy The Way. Ministop would be able to roughly double the size of its store network in South Korea from the current level of around 1,150 by acquiring Buy The Way. Ministop also has 260 stores in the Philippines and opened its first Chinese store in Qingdao this July.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. (TYO:8306) and U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley(MS) have decided to postpone their plan to create a new securities company by merging their Japanese brokerage units. Under a revised plan, Morgan Stanley Japan's trading business will remain under the Morgan Stanley group even after the planned merger while MUFG will acquire some equity stake in the trading business.

LG Household & Health Care Ltd. (SEO:051900), South Korea's No. 2 cosmetics manufacturer, said Wednesday that it is considering taking over The Faceshop Korea Co., the country's third-largest cosmetics producer. Jung Woon-ho, the founder of The Faceshop, sought to sell his stake in the company for at least US$400 million to U.S-based private equity fund Carlye Group, but the deal failed due to differences over the acquisition price.

German industrial giant Siemens (NYSE:SI) is in talks with a potential partner to set up its first wind power turbine manufacturing joint venture in mainland China as part of efforts to expand sales of green products. It is speculated that the potential partner would be its strategic partner, Shanghai Electric (SHA:601727)(HKG:2727). Siemens has a 5 per cent stake in Shanghai and Hong Kong-listed Shanghai Electric.