Vale S.A.

In the midst of the global financial crisis, the US mining industry and the energy resource sector continues to outperform the market and remains as an investment hotspot for many institutional investors from Asia.

Yesterday, the Australian market ended marginally lower as investors were encouraged by the Wall Street rallies. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index ended the day down 0.3%, or 8.9 points, at 3235.5. The broader All Ordinaries index was also down 0.3%, or 8.7 points, at 3190.4. "Many investors have feared worst, and many are probably predicting companies such as GM would eventually be gone, and are already prepared for it," says Thomas Su, Research Director of Money Cat Consulting. It may be too early to predict, but it seems the financial stocks may start leading the gain in the second half of the year, Thomas Su added.

Asia's major markets ended mostly lower yesterday. Tokyo stocks were hit by the data of huge contraction in the economy, but Shanghai Composite outperformed the Asian markets backed by hopes of further government economic stimulus measures, which also boosted the Hong Kong shares.