Asia investors no confidence in US bailout plan

Markets in Asia declined on Monday as confidence in the US bailout plan dims. They are loosing confidence that President Bush and his team is able to gain support from US lawmakers. The house in voting on the US700 billion (That's US$700,000,000,000) bailout for troubled financial mega companies.

Lawmakers in both ruling and oppposition parties who are facing re-election were a little worried aout adopting such a costly plan. Furthermore the plan is being proposed by a President that's gaining less popular. Theymost fear that this may benefit companies that got rich off bad debts.

Below are the performances of Asian markets at 17:30pm Malaysian time:

Hong Kong Hang Seng Index closed 801.41 points or 4.3% lower to 17,880.68 points
Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex closed 504.60 points or 3.8% lower to 12,600 points at current time.
Thailand SET Index closed 19.57 points or 3.2% lower to 598.59 points
Singapore Straits Times Index closed 50.12 points or 2.1% lower to 2,361.34 points
Australia All Ordinaries closed 95.40 points or 1.9% lower to 4,839.20 points
Japan Nikkei 225 closed 149.55 points or 1.25% lower to 11,743.61 points
Korean KOSPI closed 19.97 points or 1.35% lower to 1,456.36 points.

China markets, including Taiwan not traded today for holiday. The Malaysian market is rather quiet because of a two-day public holiday on Wednesday and Thursday for Eid ul-Fitr celebrations.

The Mini Dow Jones Industrial Average December Futures contract (mini Dow $5) at current time is 184 points or 1.7% lower. The futures contract traded on CBOT is currently at 10,956 points

All eyes will be on the US house vote on the bailout plan... keep watch because if Bush fails to get support, it may accelerate the down trend process. If he succeeds, I believe that it may just provide some support for the short term. I am still bearish in the longer term.

Commentary and analysis by Benny Lee