Asian stocks take the beating

With the rising crude prices trying to test the upper limit daily, the stocks, especially those belonging to the Asian continent fared badly. In fact, it was the biggest weekly fall this week in the last three months. The rising crude pushing the inflation upward, resulting in a higher interest rate thus hampering the growth of the economy and jeopardizing the livelihood of the common man.

Mitshubishi UFJ and Macquarie Group saw their fortunes down after the loss making report from the Lehman Brothers. Australia’s second largest securities company Babcock and Brown ltd suffered the worst, reportedly due to short selling. Many were of the opinion that rising inflation is the recipe to catastrophe and will compress the margins of the companies. There will be possible reduction in the earnings if the crude prices stay afloat.

China’s benchmark CSI 300 index decreased by 15% to 2979.12, the biggest ever fall recorded recently.

The G8 group of countries, in its meeting warned that soaring commodity prices may slice into economic growth. Increased commodity prices, especially that of oil and food pose a serious challenge to the stable growth and likely to increase the global inflationary pressures, the ministers warned.

A weakening dollar was attributed to the doubling of oil prices during the past 12 months. The Dallas Federal Reserve said in a paper last month that the US currency’s slide had contributed about 1/3 of the $60 increase in oil prices between 2003 and 2007.

Non stock tidbits
It is official now. China is the biggest carbon emitter last year. China’s carbon dioxide emission in 2007 was about 14% higher than the US and accounted for the two thirds of the global rise as per the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL).