Asian stock markets increased last Friday despite the stability of commodity-related stocks. This rise of Asian stocks reflects the continuous improvement of the U.S. economy as the country is considered as a very important export market for almost all countries in Asia.
Some of the Asian stocks that showed remarkable growth are the following: China’s benchmark in Shanghai, which acquired a 0.9 to 2,206.23 percent of increase; Hongkong’s Hang Seng, which increased by 1.1 percent to 18,577.91 percent; Seoul’s Kospi, which grew by 1.3 percent to 1,871.72; and Singapore, which rose to 2,673.75.
In the past few weeks, inventors were consistently and greatly encouraged because of the strengthening economy of the U.S. As a manifestation of this economic improvement, the number of people applying for the country’s unemployment benefits decreased to its lowest figure since April 2008. According to reports, the number of applications fell down in three consecutive weeks.
A certain agreement in the U.S. Congress to lengthen a payroll tax cut for a duration of two months also motivated more number of investors.
As many investors are anticipated to have vacations over the Christmas and New Year break, the trading volume next week is also expected to lie low. In observance of the Christmas day, global markets will be closed on Monday.
Fitch, a credit ratings agency foresees that the strengthening of the Asia’s developing economies will slightly go slow next year but is expected to grow by 6.8 percent, supporting the continent’s richer countries. In 2012, “Emerging Asia’s resilience will provide some support for high-income Asian countries relative to other advanced economies,” Fitch said in a report.
On the other hand, HSBC is cynical about Europe’s economy for 2012. The company fearlessly forecasted that the region’s economy may drop by 1 percent. The same is the prediction of the company for the U.S. economy, saying that it may contract by 1.5 percent next year as investors are threatened by Europe’s booming debt crisis.
Though Europe shows immediate responses to solve the crisis, HSBC said that most of the investors are still not convinced. HSBC further explained that the investors’ “loss of faith” is very much identical with the “collapse of confidence” happened last 2008, which affected the whole global economy negatively. “Back then, forecasters completely failed to grasp the gravity of the situation,” HSBC said, cautioning everyone that this may also be true today.