Press Releases

Sydney, Mar 18, 2010 (ABN Newswire) - Asian stocks are expected to extend gains on Thursday as US and Britain markets climbed to multi-month highs overnight. Wall Street was pushed to a fresh 17-month high as investors cheered for the drop in February Producer Price Index, or wholesale inflation. Yesterday most major Asian markets were stronger after the U.S. Federal Reserve pledge to keep interest rates low for an extended period. The Bank of Japan also left its rate unchanged at 0.1 per cent. The Nikkei Index gained 1.2 per cent and South Korea's Kospi was up 2.1 per cent. Shanghai Composite lifted 1.9 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 1.7 per cent.

Company News

Japan's Daiwa Securities Group Inc (TYO:8601) will become the first Japanese brokerage to lead-manage an initial public offering in China through a local joint venture, said a Japanese media. Daiwa, which is boosting its investment banking business in Asian markets, will serve as the lead manager of lens manufacturer Shanghai Conant Optics Co's IPO, scheduled to list on 19 March 2010 on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's ChiNext market for start-ups.

Hankook Tire Manufacturing Co. (SEO:000240), South Korea's largest tire maker by sales, said Wednesday it had signed an initial agreement to supply tires to BMW. Hankook Tire has been in talks to supply original equipment (OE) tires to BMW and Toyota. Hankook said earlier that its sales went up while most of the world's largest tire makers are reporting lower sales for the recently concluded year.

Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) (ETR:DBK) has become the largest shareholder in China's Hua Xia Bank (SHA:600015) after boosting its holdings to 17.12 per cent, the Chinese lender said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Thursday. The German bank in November said it agreed to pay 81.64 million euros for an additional 3.43 percent stake in the mid-sized Chinese lender.

Contact

Michelle Liang Asia Business News Asia Bureau Tel: +61-2-9247-4344 Email: michelle.liang@abnnewswire.net