Market Report – Yen Surges

The yen surged to a 5-month high against the U.S. dollar today, weighing on shares of Japanese exporters.

As Japan struggles to recover from recession, a stronger yen pressures the earnings of companies when collecting overseas earnings.

The Nikkei fell to its lowest point since late May in response, with carmakers like Honda declining.

An exception was Mitsubishi Motors, which gained on a Nikkei newspaper report that it would jointly make plug-in hybrid cars with France’s Peugeot.

Crude’s decline for a sixth straight session weighed on Asian resource-linked firms like Nippon Oil, Japan’s largest oil distributor.

But shares of China Resources Power Holdings, the Mainland’s No.4, gained after a report it planned to build a $1.2 billion coal plant in the coastal city of Dafeng.

And Property stocks in Hong Kong declined again as over $220 billion in new Chinese lending in June raised expectations of a monetary tightening ahead.

(NTDTV)