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Asian stock markets soar after US takes over Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae
Monday, September 08, 2008 | No comments posted.
TOKYO (AP) — Asian stock markets soared Monday after Washington announced a bailout of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — a move that could help bolster a shaky U.S. housing market and renew global investor confidence.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index was up more than 414 points, or 3.4 percent, at 12,627.07 in afternoon trading in Tokyo.
Seoul’s Kospi index was up 5.4 percent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index surged 3.9 percent and Singapore’s Straits Times Index jumped 3.9 percent. Key indexes in Australia and Taiwan were also higher.
The U.S. Treasury’s decision Sunday to place the two companies, which own or guarantee about half of U.S. mortgage debt, into a conservatorship removes a big cloud that had been weighing on global markets.
“I think what the American authorities have done, in the brief look I’ve had, it is the right thing,” said Glenn Stevens, the head of Australia’s central bank, at an appearance before a parliamentary committee in the southern city of Melbourne.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index was up more than 414 points, or 3.4 percent, at 12,627.07 in afternoon trading in Tokyo.
Seoul’s Kospi index was up 5.4 percent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index surged 3.9 percent and Singapore’s Straits Times Index jumped 3.9 percent. Key indexes in Australia and Taiwan were also higher.
The U.S. Treasury’s decision Sunday to place the two companies, which own or guarantee about half of U.S. mortgage debt, into a conservatorship removes a big cloud that had been weighing on global markets.
“I think what the American authorities have done, in the brief look I’ve had, it is the right thing,” said Glenn Stevens, the head of Australia’s central bank, at an appearance before a parliamentary committee in the southern city of Melbourne.
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