Press Releases

Sydney, Jan 25, 2010 (ABN Newswire) - US shares tumbled sharply for a third straight day on Friday as continued worries about the White House's plan to limit bank risk-taking. Google's disappointing earnings also hit the tech stocks. For the week, the Dow dropped 4.1 per cent, the S&P 500 lost 3.9 per cent and the Nasdaq tumbled 3.6 per cent lower.

Asian markets opened weaker on Monday following Wall Street's losses. On Friday, Asian stocks also experienced significant falls with Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 2.6%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.6%, South Korea's Kospi gave up 2.2%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index recovered some of the early losses and ended 0.65 per cent.

Company News

Major convenience store chain operator FamilyMart Co.(TYO:8028) said it will absorb am/pm Japan Co., which became its wholly owned subsidiary in December. After the merger, am/pm Japan will be dissolved and its outlets will be converted to the FamilyMart brand in a move to streamlining the stocking, distribution and management functions of the two companies through integration.

LG Innotek (SEO:011070), a Korean electronic parts maker owned by LG Electronics (SEO:066570), plans to invest 1.1 trillion won this year, including 800 billion won in the light-emitting diode business. The firm also said it targets 4 trillion won in revenue in 2010. LG Innotek, which merged with another component-making unit of LG Electronics, LG Micron, plans to release its earnings results Monday.

Chinese car and battery maker BYD Co Ltd (HKG:1211) will invest 22.5 billion yuan over five years to build China's largest solar power battery plant, a report said on Saturday. The plant will be built in China's Shaanxi province. Analysts said BYD is likely to use the 15 billion yuan credit received from the Bank of China in December to invest in new areas such as solar energy and new energy vehicles.

Japan's Kirin Holdings Co. (TYO:2595) and Suntory Holdings Ltd. have postponed a basic merger agreement until February at the earliest, due to a disagreement over the merger ratio, reported a Japanese media. This is the second time the firms have postponed the agreement.

South Korea's Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction (SEO:034020) said on Monday it had won a 859.4 billion won an orrder to supply the main equipment for an Indian thermal power plant. Doosan said it would provide the equipment under a deal its Indian unit signed with GMR Energy, a power generation unit of Indian conglomerate GMR.

Contact

Michelle Liang ABN Newswire TEL: 61-2-9247-4344