Press Releases

Sydney, Mar 19, 2010 (ABN Newswire) - Wall Street overnight gained for an eighth consecutive session with a low trading volume. Thursday US weekly jobless claims data and core consumer prices in February provided mild support for the market. Most Asian markets declined yesterday. Japanese exporters were hurt by the weakness in euro against yen. Nikkei 225 lost nearly 1.0 per cent, and South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.5 per cent. Hong Kong and mainland China markets gave up their early gains to close lower on Thursday on renewed fears that China might take further measure to control the pace of bank lending. Shanghai composite closed down 0.14 percent, while Hang Seng Index fell 0.25 percent.

Company News

Japan's Toho Zinc (TYO:5707), a 24.1 per cent shareholder in Australia's CBH Resources (ASX:CBH), will double its stake in CBH after the Australian miner recommended shareholders accept the proportional takeover bid. Under the offer Toho will increase its stake in CBH to a maximum of 49.9 per cent at A$0.25 a share. Toho now also holds a 50.6 per cent interest in CBH's convertible notes. CBH said it was not recommending the proposal from Belgian zinc giant Nyrstar (EBR:NYR) because it could not be successful in the current form.

Aeon Co Ltd (TYO:8267), Japan's second-largest retailer, expects to return to the black for the first time in two years. Aeon said it is now predicting a net profit of 23.5 billion yen for the year ended in February, compared with an earlier profit forecast of 7.5 billion to 15 billion yen. This is due to an extraordinary gain from changes to its pension payment system. Its operating profit will be 128.8 billion yen for the year ended in February, thanks to a sharp recovery in the second half.

South Korea's Kia Motors (SEO:000270) said it will invest 100 million euros building a new engine plant at its assembly site in Slovakia. The plant will have an annual production capacity of 300,000 cars. The company has planned to boost car production in Slovakia by 40 percent this year, driven mainly by rising demand in the SUV market.

China Mobile Ltd. (NYSE:CHL) (HKG:0941), the world's biggest mobile operator by subscribers, reported that net profit for the 12 months ended Dec. 31 rose 2.3 per cent to 115.20 billion yuan from 112.63 billion yuan a year earlier. Despite the profit increase beats market expectations, China Mobile saw a sharp slowdown in profit growth for 2009 compared to previous corresponding period. The telecom operator says it plans to cut capital spending in the next three years.

Contact

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