Stocks: Thursday’s review

Asian stocks outside of Japan rose after falling to a seven-week low yesterday on bets that China may fine tune anti-inflation policies. Japanese shares fell after a public holiday as speculation mounted Standard & Poor’s is preparing to cut the country’s sovereign-debt rating.

Japan's Nikkei 225 closed down 1.8%. Shares of construction equipment manufacturer Komatsu and Fanuc, producing controllers and industrial automation systems, remained under pressure data suggests a slowdown in the growth of Chinese industry. At the end of trading Komatsu and Fanuc closed in negative territory at 4.1% and 3.3% respectively. Oil and gas companies Japan Petroleum Exploration and Inpex decreased by 3.3% and 1.7% respectively.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.4%, while China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.1%.

At auction in Hong Kong stocks showed a positive trend mainly - in the largest developers plus finished China Resources Land (+4,3%) and China Overseas Land & Investment (+5,6%), energy company, China Resources Power Holdings (+5,7 %) and clothing manufacturer Esprit Holdings (+6,4%).

Australia's S & P / ASX 200 fell by 0.2%. Raw materials companies showed mixed trends - Rio Tinto (+0,2%) and BHP Billiton (+0,1%), Oz Minerals (-0,8%).

Shares of retailer David Jones fell 5.4% after management reported a 11% reduction of sales in the first quarter. In addition, according to company forecasts profit in the first half of the year could fall by 15% -20%.

European stocks fell as Chancellor Angela Merkel said joint euro bonds would send a “completely wrong signal,” offsetting a report showing business confidence in Europe’s biggest economy unexpectedly rose in November.

Merkel repeated her opposition to common debt sales and added that joint euro-area bonds would lead to a convergence of interest rates in the region. “Nothing has changed in my position,” Merkel said today at a press conference with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Strasbourg, France.

A report today showed German business confidence unexpectedly rose for the first time in five months in November. The Munich-based Ifo institute’s business climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, increased to 106.6 from 106.4 in October. Economists had predicted a decline to 105.2, according to the median of 40 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey.

France’s CAC 40 Index slipped 0.01 percent. Germany’s DAX Index dropped 0.5 percent. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index slid 0.2 percent.

The banking sector in Europe was in the "plus" after the media reported that German banks appealed to the European service supervisor with a request to extend until January 13 application deadline to the program, which sets forth the items to achieve the European targets for capital adequacy. Shares of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank rose 0.4% and 4.3% respectively, the French lenders BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole rose 3.3% and 1.2% respectively, while the Austrian Erste Group Bank said in its asset 4 of 3%.

Finished in positive territory mining companies trading in Europe: shares of Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton rose 1.5% and 0.9% respectively, Anglo American securities rose in price by 0.3%.

Worse still felt the oil sector, where there was a decline of quotations: the shares of BP and Royal Dutch Shell fell 1.4% and 1.8% respectively.

On Thursday trading on U.S. stocks were not conducted on the occasion of Thanksgiving Day.