Market Report – Asian Stocks Sink on Euro Woes

In today’s market report… Asian stocks fell and ended the second quarter with their worst performance since the collapse of Lehman Brothers as investors got out of shares and high-yielding currencies on concerns over bank funding in Europe.

In Hong Kong, Agricultural Bank of China opened the retail portion of its IPO on Wednesday, attracting a steady stream of investors prepared to brave weak markets.

Individual investors headed to local bank branches to pick up offer documents, and while foot traffic indicated decent interest in China’s third-largest bank, it was hardly the frenzy that has greeted other large Chinese bank offerings.

The view on valuation is the critical element of AgBank’s deal, which, if it exceeds the $21.9 billion that Industrial and Commercial Bank of China raised in 2006, will be the world’s largest-ever IPO.

How much the Beijing-based bank raises is important for the lender in terms of giving it an adequate capital cushion. It is also key for China as a whole, as it will signal investor appetite for one of the country’s key sectors.

Foto: NTDTV