In South Korea Kospi Index close higher 11.17 or 0.60% to close at 1,863.90, in Thailand SET index closed lower 10.92 or 1.31% to 821.71, and Indonesia JSE Index edged higher 50.13 or 1.85% to 2,765.19. Sensex index in India closed higher 341.69 or 1.68% to 20,686.89.


Bond Yields decreased on 10-year U.S. bonds to 3.87% and 30-year bonds increased to 4.37%.

Commodities, Metals, and Currencies

Crude oil fell $1.29 to close at $96.790 per barrel for a front month contract, natural gas increased 17 cents to $7.845 per mBtu, and gasoline futures decreased 2.90 cents to close at 251.180 cents per gallon.

Gold dropped $3.40 in New York trading to close at $865.70 per ounce, silver closed down 3.80 cents to $15.462 per ounce, and copper for front month delivery decreased 3.05 cents to 315.75 per pound and in London copper futures increased $214.00 to $6,939.50.

Gold in 2007 rose 31%, its best annual rise in twenty eight years.

Dollar edged lower against euro to $1.4752 and lower to 109.290 yen. For the 2007 dollar lost 11.8% against euro.


2:00PM New York, 7:00PM London - Retailers weigh U.K. down 2.02%.

Stocks in London traded in negative territory as retailers slumped on a report that retailers issued the highest number of negative sales updates in almost two years in the fourth quarter of 2007.

In London trading FTSE 100 dropped 2.02% or 130.9 to 6,348.50.

Of the 102 FTSE100 index, 4 gained, and 98 declined.

Liberty International led the decliners with a loss of 6.9% followed by retailer Kingfisher shedding 6.8%.

Grant Thornton reported that 22% of retailers listed in London gave negative sentiments in the fourth quarter of 2007 up from 7% from the third quarter. According to Grant Thornton, the proportion of positive sentiments in the fourth quarter fell from 21% in the previous three months to 41%. Bloomberg News reported this after an emailed statement was sent to media companies.

In another report on the volume of listing on the AIM stock market in London published on the website of Grant Thornton the secondary offerings raised more capital than the primary issues for the first time in a decade.

The value of new companies listing on AIM fell for the first time in five years in 2007, although secondary issues continued to show strong growth in a year characterised by an impressive mid-year performance and a disappointing final quarter, according to the latest research by Grant Thornton Corporate Finance.

The value of new issues on AIM in 2007 was £6.5 billion, a drop of more than a third (35%) on previous year, while secondary issues grew by at least 50% to £8.628 billion, a marked reversal on the pattern during the past decade. In total, AIM will have raised primary and secondary issues of more than £15 billion by the end of the year, equaling 2006''s final figure of £15.678 billion.

""""""""This is the first time in five years that the value of IPOs on AIM has not grown by at least 50% year-on-year, and so despite seeing several records broken in 2007, including the most funds raised in a month this June, overall it has proved to be a disappointing year in terms of growth,"""""""" said Philip Secrett, International Director of Capital Markets at Grant Thornton.

The volume of new companies listing also dropped to 275 this year from 462 in 2006, and at year end there were a total of 1,689 companies on AIM, a net gain of just 55 companies year-on-year.