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GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia shares dip in choppy trade, Shanghai slides

Published 08/25/2009, 02:48 AM
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* Asia stocks fall 1 pct in light trade, techs outperform

* Shanghai falls more than 5 pct, fallout limited

* W.House to renominate Bernanke as Fed chief, little impact

* Markets reverse moves from Monday, yen posts broad gains

By Eric Burroughs

HONG KONG, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Asian shares and commodities slipped on Tuesday in a partial reversal of the previous day's solid gains, but many investors stuck to the sidelines awaiting more clues on whether the global economic recovery is picking up steam.

European shares were also poised for a retreat, with futures on the Dow Jones Eurostoxx 50 down 0.9 percent.

The Shanghai Composite index <.SSEC> tumbled more than 5 percent as cautious remarks from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Monday stirred worries about the economic rebound in the country that has helped fuel recovery hopes in much of Asia.

The latest slide in Shanghai was mainly driven by investors taking advantage of the 7.5 percent bounce over the previous three trading days to pull funds out, hitting bank shares the hardest. But the fallout from Chinese losses on other global markets was limited, unlike slides seen last week.

"In China's market, it's always those investers who eye an overnight fortune who take the lead in dumping shares when the market becomes unstable," said a senior trader at Guotai Junan Securities in Shanghai.

"Generally speaking, their withdrawal will not result in a prolonged market slump, but it will often nevertheless keep the market in a standstill for weeks, if not months."

Investors showed little reaction to news that the White House will tap U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for another term at the helm of the central bank. [ID:nBERNANKE]

Analysts said the decision had been widely expected, but still removed some uncertainty about the outlook for U.S. monetary policy and was neutral for U.S. assets and the dollar.

Some analysts had said a decision not to reappoint Bernanke would have been a negative by risking politicising the Fed chief post at a time when investors are worried about record U.S. deficits.

"When you look at responses to last year's financial crisis, bold action was taken and the market reacted to that favourably," said Takahide Nagasaki, chief FX strategist at Daiwa Securities SMBC in Tokyo.

"I don't think there will be any major impact, but it should be positive for stock and bond markets in the sense that an element of uncertainty has been removed."

The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> dropped 1 percent, with consumer discretionary and health care stocks the bigger decliners. The index is still up about 47 percent for the year and near an 11-month high struck earlier in the month.

Technology shares held up the best on hopes that frail consumer demand is picking up heading into the key U.S. back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons.

South Korea's LG Display <034220.KS> the world's No. 2 LCD panel maker, recovered from early losses to rise 2.6 percent after confirming it had signed a non-binding agreement to build an LCD plant with the city of Guangzhou, China. [ID:nSEL000749] [ID:nSEO42635]

Share trading volumes were very light for a second day running, leading to exaggerated moves across markets.

Japan's Nikkei average <.N225> shed 0.8 percent after jumping 3.4 percent the previous day, its biggest one-day gain in 3-½ months. Turnover on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's first section slowed from the previous day to the lowest in five weeks.

Foreign investors, which have been increasingly shoving funds back into Japanese shares in the past few weeks, are keeping an eye on Japan's Aug. 30 general election.

With many expecting the opposition Democratic Party to win and end a half-century of nearly unbroken rule by the ruling coalition, foreign buying of Japanese shares on a rolling one-month moving average has hit its highest levels since mid-2007. [ID:nPOLJP]

The dollar dipped against the yen and was down slightly against a basket of currencies, with the yen rebounding after a broad slide the previous day as market players favoured riskier assets including higher-yielding currencies.

The dollar shed 0.6 percent to 93.85 yen . The Australian dollar, the highest-yielding of major currencies, dipped 0.5 percent to $0.8336 and dropped about 1 percent to 78.25 yen .

"The lack of upward momentum in equities and risky currencies may reflect a degree of fatigue and simply a lot of the good news is in the price," said a trader at a European bank in Tokyo.

"It is pretty clear monetary policy will be supportive with little risk of genuine policy tightening for some time in the major economies."

Gold gained on the dollar's woes, rising $1.80 an ounce to $943.15 . But oil prices pulled back, losing 78 cents a barrel to $73.59 after reaching a 10-month high of $74.81 on Monday.

Safe-haven government bonds popped higher on the retreat in shares and gains in U.S. Treasuries the previous day.

September Japanese government bond futures <2JGBv1> edged up 0.06 point to 138.97 and the benchmark 10-year JGB yield was flat at 1.325 percent, holding near a five-week low struck last week.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields dipped a basis point to 3.464 percent. (Additional reporting by Lu Jianxin/Edmund Klamann in Shanghai and Charlotte Cooper in Tokyo) (Editing by Kim Coghill)

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