a third straight day. and they re down more than 71% for the year so far. now around the rest of the region, mining and metals companies help to lift australia s main benchmark there. and bhp billiton and rio tinto gained 2% by the close. also property stocks were the winner in hong kong after some positive earnings reports. and one of those came from this company, hutchison wampoa. shares of hong kong-based property and telephone company hutchison whampoa climbed 5% after the firm reported stellar full-year earnings. the company head and hong kong s richest man said its profits jumped 47% in 2010 far exceeding expectations. that was thanks in part to a strong turnaround in the 3g telecoms business. we turn to wall street where
but generally, a weak day across the board, hong kong down by 1.5%. the property stocks taking a hit in hong kong. shanghai down not by as much. australia down .5%. a new reading on the economy, fourth quarter gdp coming in at .7% growth there a bit weaker than expected. if you have any comments or questions on the stories you seton show here, all you have to do is get in touch with our team on facebook page. we re all there. facebook.com/cnnwbt. and have your say there. for the moment, though, we re all said and done here. you ve been watching world business today. thanks for joining us. i m andrew stevens in hong kong. i m emily ruben in london. back at 2:00 p.m. london time, 2:00 p.m. in hong kong and 9:00 a.m. in new york.
teeth now after a slightly hesitant start. we are seeing gains of, well, really nearly 1 frs for all of the markets. clearly i think there s a sense of what s going on in egypt doesn t need to worry europe too much for now now that they re talking but i don t want to over interpret that and particularly looking at flat u.s. few churls but what about over there in asia, andrew? well, only hong kong was down, charles. the rest of the markets had a pretty strong day to start the week. property stocks are the big losers. all about interest rates in china. latest wrinkle is chinese premier said that he would limit market speculation. that s been certainly interpreted badly here in hong kong as you see the hang seng down by 1.5%. different story in tokyo there. the nikkei up by about half of 1%. sydney finishing moderately
the currencies. also against the dollar and the yen down just a shade 82.65. pauline? the yen plunged a little bit and recovered in the session and here in asia, most of the markets finished lower led by tokyo. the nikkei lost more than 1% by the close, the first opportunity for investors to react to japan s recent sovereign debt downgrade. standard & poor s cut the rating saying japan will most likely struggle with the fiscal deficit for several more years. the hang seng lost. the shanghai composite gained slightly, about four points despite a lagging performance of the property stocks and a new rez didn residential tax started today.
very slightly and same story for the xetra dax. here in asia, most of the markets finished lower led by tokyo. the nikkei lost more than 1% by the close. standard & poor s cut japan s rating to aa minus on thursday saying japan most likely will struggle with the fiscal deficit for several more years. the hang seng and asx 200 lost nearly 1%. the shanghai composite gained slightly despite a lagging performance by some property stocks. and let s go now to john again in davos. japan made big news by the downgrade by standard & poor s. the yen fell and then regained a little bit s. this something they re talking about there at davos? not particularly, actually, pauline. traditionally, as charles knows, there s not a big presence here