[R]8:30AM Asian markets decline, Hong Kong slips from record high, South Korea loses on U.S. subprime rate.[/R]

Asian markets finished broadly lower Monday.

The Japanese market was closed for a public holiday.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index shed 0.6% to close at 22,953.94. China Mobile and Cheung Kong lost, as investors took profit. China Mobile dipped 1% after closing at record highs in the last two sessions. Conglomerate Cheung Kong declined 2%.

In South Korea, the Kospi Index slipped 0.7% to 1,949.51. Samsung Electronics, the world biggest computer-memory producer, tumbled 5.4 %, offsetting the 15% advance this month on a decline in its second-quarter net profits. Financial stocks were hurt also as their U.S. investments suffered losses resulting from the weakness in the U.S. mortgage market. Woori Finance Holdings lost 4.4% and Shinhan Financial Group dipped 1.5%.

In Taiwan, Taipei closed 0.6% lower at 9,417.32 as South Korea and Taiwan are the markets with the highest technology weightings in Asia. The Dramexchange Index, tracking prices of the most widely used computer memory chips, declined 0.5% to 3,332.79 in Taiwan on July 13.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 Index lost 0.1% to 6,380.80. Miners fell on worries over takeover deals. Rio Tinto kept slipping as investors are concerned that it is paying too much for Alcan of Canada. Shares of the company dipped 4.2%. BHP Billiton also slid 2.5% on speculation that it could make a bid for U.S-based Alcoa.

Another policy tightening pulled stocks in China down. The Shanghai Composite Index shed 2.4% to 3,821.91. Financial led the decliners with Shenzhen Development Bank losing 6.4%, Hua Xia Bank shedding 4.8% and Citic Securities dipping 5%.


[R]7:30AM NY – 6:30 PM Mumbai Sensex finishes 38 points higher with Reliance Energy surging.[/R]

The Sensex on BSE finished Monday 38.50 points higher, or 0.25%, to 15,311.22.

Intra-day high and low

The benchmark index opened 22 points higher at 15,295, and soon touched record high of 15,341. Then, profit-taking at higher levels weighed the index down to a low of 15,239, down 102 points from the peak.

The market-breadth was positive as out of 2,753 stocks traded on BSE, 1,485 advanced, 1,210 declined and 58 were unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, 12 advanced, while the rest declined.

The turnover on BSE was Rs 5,270 crore, compared with Rs 6,752 crore on Friday. On NSE, turnover was Rs 11,519 crore, lower than Rs 14,883 crore on Friday.

Economic news

The biggest builder of dams in India, Jaiprakash Associates Ltd engaged Barclays Capital to sell $400 million of convertible bonds to boost cement production. Jaiprakash will also use proceeds from the debt sale to build a new thermal power plant and for capital expenditure.

The rupee kept rising against the dollar and passed 40.40 during morning trading, boosted by exporters and banks selling dollars as well as by the weakness of the dollar in the overseas markets.

Trading highlights

GMR Infrastructure was the most active stock with a turnover of Rs 248 crore followed by Reliance Communications and Indiabulls Real Estate.