Asian Market Volatility Follows Losses on Wall Street (MarketWatch) (14-01-2008)

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- After the 1 percent plus losses on Wall Street on Friday, Asian markets were volatile on the first trading day of the week, with shares in Australia, South Korea, China and Hong Kong moving in and out of negative territory during the session with the exception of shares in Taiwan that gained strongly on opposition party Kuomintang's decisive electoral win at the weekend.

In Japan stock markets were closed Monday for a holiday.

The Hang Seng Index dropped 0.2% to 26,806.44 after rising as high as 27,142.88 earlier in the day. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index lost 0.6% at 15,735.40, tracking the decline in Shanghai.

On mainland China, the Shanghai Composite dropped 0.5% to 5,457.87, also unable to sustain early gains, as U.S.-listed stocks such as China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. and PetroChina Co. that came under selling pressure.

Taiwan's Weighted index jumped 1.8% to 8,175.02, after the Kuomintang party, or the KMT, which is seen as being China-friendly, won 81 of the 113 seats in the Parliament as compared to 27 seats for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.

Elsewhere, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.2% to 5,992 after dropping as low as 5,904.3, South Korea's fell 0.5% to 1,773.84 and New Zealand's NZX 50 index gave up 1.45 at 3,820.07.

In Sydney, shares of National Australia Bank added 1.4% and Macquarie Group climbed 0.9%, as investors looked for bargains after recent declines.

In Shanghai, shares of China Petroleum, or Sinopec dropped 1.1%, while PetroChina stock lost 0.6%. In Hong Kong trading, Sinopec sank 4.2% and PetroChina shed 2.2%.

In Taipei trading, shares of China Airlines soared 4.3% and Huaku Construction stock surged 6.4%, leading the broad advance.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar fell 0.04% at 108.74 yen, while the Australian dollar climbed 0.5% to $0.90.

February gold futures climbed $1.3 to $899 an ounce in electronic trading, after the metal topped the psychologically important level of $900 an ounce earlier in the day, rising as high as $900.6.

Crude oil for February delivery slipped 14 cents to $92.55 a barrel in electronic trading, after the contract fell 81 cents to $92.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Friday.

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