China Eastern shares closed the morning session down 7.5% and Air China tumbled nearly 9% on expectations it might be used to bankroll a counter bid by CNAC.

Bloomberg news reported today PricewaterhouseCoopers announced yesterday the value of IPOs in China will grow from Rmb 63 billion last year to Rmb 480 billion as more companies traded in Hong Kong are allowed to sell shares to the nation’s bourses.

IPOs in Hong Kong are projected to raise 5% less this year at HK$280billion.

China Petrochemical Corporation Chairman Su Shulin said on the company’s Website yesterday that the company will acquire more foreign oil and gas assets in order to make it a global competitor.

In addition, Sinopec, a unit of China Petrochemical Corporation has bought 60,000 tons of spot gasoline for January and will not export any oil products for the second successive month.

Beijing announced last week that it will halve fuel import tax on gasoline, diesel and kerosene to 1% this year and will waive its 17% value added tax on diesel imports from December and March to augment domestic fuel supplies.


5:00AM New York, 9:00PM Sydney - ASX 200 index declined 1% after broader market worried about the U.S. economy.

ASX 200 index lost 1% or 62.50 to close at 6,290.70.

The Preliminary market turnover was 1.33 billion, worth $3.56 billion, with 460 stocks moving up, 725 moving down, and 312 unchanged. The most actively traded stock was Retail Star with 131.7 million shares worth $3.3 million.

National Australia Bank Ltd. led lenders lower on the prospect that slowing U.S. economic growth will worsen the current credit-market crisis. Westfield Group lost 4% and News Corp declined 3.7%. The U.S. markets in the overnight trading declined more than 1.7%.

Newcrest Mining Ltd. jumped to a record as gold prices rose to a three-decade high of $860 an ounce. Gold traded in 1978 at $873 an ounce.

Newcrest Mining Gold extended a seven-day rally as the U.S. dollar weakened, boosting the appeal of the precious metal as a hedge against inflation. Bullion for February delivery recently traded at $858 an ounce, after rising to a record $860.10 an ounce yesterday.

Newcrest Mining added 10.2% and Lihir Gold Ltd was up 5.8%. Woodside gained 1.6%, Oil Search added 3.3% and Santos was up 2.8% after crude oil rose to $100 a barrel for the first time in New York as global fuel consumption threatens to outpace production.

Crude oil rose $3.320 to close at $99.30 per barrel for a front month contract in New York Mercantile Exchange trading, natural gas increased 37 cents to $7.859 per mBtu, and gasoline futures increased 7.22 cents to close at 256.30 cents per gallon.

Crude oil futures in the U.S. trading crossed a previous intra-day high $99.29 on the rising worries that the U.S. weekly inventory report due to be released tomorrow will show another decline in inventories and growing violence in Nigeria. Natural gas and heating oil rose nearly 5% on the harsh winter in the North East region of the U.S.

Separately, Woodside and Santos resumed production at their oil fields off the northwest coast of Australia yesterday after they were shut down by a tropical cyclone.

Woodside Petroleum Ltd. climbed as oil traded near $100 a barrel.

Qantas today ruled out possibilities of it importing temporary skilled workers to break the effect of a looming strike by 1,700 of its maintenance workers. The new Immigration Minister Chris Evans issued a strongly worded a message that the Labor Government will not tolerate the temporary skilled migration scheme.

Qantas has been grappling with a series of contingency plans to reduce the impact of the industrial action but it has been dogged by reports that it had been considering importing foreign engineers on so-called 457 temporary work visas to replace the striking workforce and keep flying next week.

The Australian Licensed Engineers Association (ALAEA) wants Qantas to agree to a 5% pay rise but the company is offering 3% with another 1% in superannuating. Qantas could potentially source engineers from Jetstar but this may not be enough. Qantas'' share shed 0.2%.

Centro Properties Group share gained 7.7% today after unconfirmed media reports that Blackstone Group and Citadel Investment Group may consider bidding for Centro’s properties. AMP Ltd. and DB Trust have also expressed interest.