Tokyo stocks seen slipping from six-month highs
Tokyo: Japanese stocks are expected to pause this week after rallying to a six-month high, but brokers said aggressive buying by foreign investors attracted by relatively cheap valuations was likely to limit losses for now. The Nikkei average rose 2.22 per cent last week to finish at 8,980.64, its highest close since December 4. It was the fourth straight week of gains for the Nikkei, the first such streak since one that ended in March 2002. "It looks like we could take a breather after testing 9,000 last week," said Daiwa Securities strategist Tsuyoshi Nomaguchi. "We'll likely continue to see strong buying by foreign investors...but at some point its going to be difficult to push up the market just on the back of overseas players." Brokers said the Nikkei was expected to fluctuate between 8,700 and 9,200 this week. Apart from activity on Wall Street, there are few major trading factors on the horizon.
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Jet makers see signs of recovery in airline market
Le Bourget: Top executives at jet makers Airbus and Boeing offered a bullish view of prospects for the airline industry over the weekend, saying they saw signs of a recovery in a sector pummelled by poor economic growth, the war in Iraq and the deadly SARS virus. As the 45th Paris Air Show kicked into full swing on Sunday, Airbus Chief Executive Noel Forgeard raised his forecast for jet orders this year and stuck with a key goal to deliver 300 planes in 2003. Airbus now looks sure to beat US rival Boeing in annual deliveries for the first time in over a quarter century of fierce competition. "We are realistic about the current economic environment, but we are also optimistic," Forgeard said. "The market is better than we expected and our market share has increased much more than we anticipated."
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Bangladesh expects IMF, World Bank aid to fight poverty
Dhaka: The International Monetary Fund and World Bank are likely to respond favourably to Bangladesh's plea for $2 billion assistance to finance a special poverty reduction plan, finance minister M Saifur Rahman said on Sunday. The plan would be reviewed and is expected to be approved at IMF board meeting in Washington on June 19 and that of the World Bank on June 23, Rahman said after a meeting with visiting IMF Executive Director Yaga V Reddy. The three-year plan, to commence on July 1, would be the first phase of a programme to halve Bangladesh's poverty level by 2015. Nearly half of Bangladesh's more than 130 million people still live in poverty, officials said. Rahman said Reddy, who arrived in Dhaka on Saturday, appeared happy over recent reforms, including flotation of the taka currency, and provisions made in the proposed 2003-04 (July-June) budget for higher revenue growth to finance development. "It looks they will approve the requested fund for our special poverty alleviation programme," the minister said. Bangladesh annually receives about $1.5 billion in external aid, including from the World Bank. The IMF held back any assistance over the last five years because Dhaka failed to implement suggested reforms.
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BAE Systems dismisses merger speculation
Le Bourget: The chief executive of BAE Systems Plc., Europe's biggest arms maker, poured cold water Sunday on speculation it was in merger talks with big defense companies in the United States. "Any merger talk is just speculation," Mike Turner told reporters at the Paris Air Show, although later he reiterated that the British company's long-term goal was to expand in the US.
"It is quite clear to anybody who can add up that if you look at the spend on technology in the UK and Europe and technology in the US, it is obvious where the future is." His comments came after recent un-sourced reports that the British company has been considering possible tie-ups with prime arms contractors in the United States, including Boeing Co, Lockheed Martin Corp and General Dynamics Corp. Turner also rejected an unsourced report in the Sunday Times newspaper that BAE was considering General Dynamics as either a full-blown merger partner or as a buyer of its shipbuilding business as part of a three-way tie-up with Boeing.
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