Asian market preview 11/09/2008

US markets ended moderately higher last night as Wall St mulls Lehman plans and after investors bought energy, materials and consumer-staple stocks which have been battered badly the previous session. Lehman Brothers reported the biggest loss in its 158-year history, posting $3.9 billion Q3 loss on $5.6 billion of writedowns, worse than the $2.2 billion loss predicted by analysts. The company then said that it plans to sell a majority stake in its investment management business and spin off its troubled mortgage assets and its shares dropped another 6.9% on top of 45% drop in the previous session. Bargain hunters dominated the markets last night as they bought energy names and defensive stocks like consumer staples which have dropped to a fairly cheap price. Oil prices fell again as indications of a weakening economy overshadowed OPEC's decision to cut production. Light sweet crude fell 68 cents to settle at $102.58 per barrel. The Dow ended up 38.19 pts or 0.34% to 11,268.92 in a very volatile session. S&P500 rose 7.53 pts or 0.61% to 1,232.04 while Nasdaq rose 18.89 pts or 0.85% to 2,228.70.

Asian markets may open slightly higher today and may rise further if investors decided that it's time to bargain hunt cheap stocks. Most markets retreated yesterday as more jitters came from Wall St over fears of Lehman Brothers' failure. The sliding oil price may provide support and reason for investors to buy stocks as inflation pressure eases. Volatility in the markets around the region may be quite high especially for those with expiring futures contract due today such as Nikkei and Kospi. Oil was recently traded around $102.83ish per barrel, gold traded around $750.35ish and JPY traded around 107.80ish. Nikkei futures was closed at 12295 in CME compared to the close of 12300 for old contract and 12260 for new contract here yesterday.

Kospi may open around yesterday's closing price with tendency to go higher today. Kospi was one of the markets in the green territory yesterday as investors bought up futures contracts for rollover due to expire today. The strengthening Won may provide support and give more reason for investors to buy stocks. The drop in oil prices may also give reason for investors to buy. Kospi may find support at 189ish and its resistance at 194ish today. Please take note that these data is for Kospi's new contract.

Hangseng may open higher today and may again reclaim its 20,000 psychological level. Hangseng dropped to below 20,000 on downgrades for China property sector and also after commodity related stocks were hit. Bargain hunters may start kicking in today as they try to get cheap stocks to collect when the Hangseng index dip below 20,000. China's inflation measure dropped to 4.9%, its lowest in 14 months. However, investors are not too happy with that data as now, the focus are on commodity prices which have dropped so fast that it indicated a major slowdown in economy. Hangseng may find its resistance at 20300ish today and its support at 19800ish.