Australia Stocks Start Year Higher With Low Liquidity

January 2, 2015 Share Print 0

Asian shares started the new year higher in thin trading, with many of the region’s markets closed ahead of the first full week of trading in 2015.

But weak factory activity in China capped gains, as many countries are dependent on the Asian giant’s growth.

China’s official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) slipped to 50.1 in December, the lowest level of 2014, from 50.3 in November.

Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng index closed 1.1% higher at 23,857.82.

Bucking the trend were shares of casinos, after data showed that gambling revenue in Macau fell for the first time on an annual basis since its casinos were liberalised in 2001.

Wynn Macau, Melco Crown and Galaxy Entertainment shares were all down more than 2.6%.

via BBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.