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Asian shares ease as investors cautious despite Greek deal

Reuters/Tokyo 10 Feb 12 | 08:43 AM

The euro and shares eased on Friday as investors kept a cautious view over Greece's debt restructuring prospect, after Athens struck a deal on fiscal reforms, paving the way for securing a crucial financial aid.

Greek political leaders clinched a deal on severe austerity measures and reforms indispensable for a second international bailout in two years, but the country's global lenders demanded more steps and a parliamentary seal of approval before providing any aid.

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The agreement, after weeks of wrangling over the terms of the 130 billion euro bailout, removed the imminent risk of a hard default by Greece, which faces a major bond redemption on March 20.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan inched down 0.3%, after climbing to a six-month high the day before, lifting the index up nearly 14% this year.

The euro was off a two-month high of $1.3322 reached on Thursday, trading at $1.3273 early on Friday.

"There is a bit of a sense of achievement over the Greece issue and given that the market has been risk-positive, it may be time for some correction to set in," said Hiroshi Maeba, managing director of foreign exchange trading at Nomura Securities in Tokyo.

"While the risk of an imminent default by Greece has receded, it's not the end of the story. There is still risk of cases similar to Greece emerging in the euro zone," he said.

The euro had likely seen its top for now, but because the market remained short of the single currency, its downside was also limited, Maeba said.

Japan's Nikkei opened up 0.1%.

Global stocks, the euro, industrial commodities and high-yielding euro zone debt prices rose on Thursday after the Greece deal, while safe-haven US Treasury prices fell.

US crude oil was down 0.1% to $99.73 early on Friday, after gaining $1.13, or 1.14% on Thursday. Brent crude rose 1.2% to settle at $118.59 a barrel on Thursday, the highest close since July 22.

London copper jumped to levels unseen in nearly five-months on Thursday, rallying with the euro.

Chinese trade data for January is due later in the session, providing more clues over the state of the world's second-largest economy.

Sceptisicm after deal

EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said a debt swap deal between Greece and its private bond holders was practically finalised.

Finance ministers of the 17-nation euro zone arriving for talks in Brussels raised pressure on Greece to convince global lenders of its commitment to deliver, warning there would be no immediate green light for the rescue package.

"Despite the important progress achieved over the last days, we did not yet have all necessary elements on the table to take decisions today," Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker said after the talks. He said the Greek parliament would not reject the agreed reform package.

Barclays Capital said in a note that a subdued reaction in the forex market suggested much of the good news was already priced in, leaving the euro capped.

"The political brinksmanship up till the last minute-agreement once again revealed the degree of challenges the Greek government will face in its implementation," it said.

The European Central Bank kept interest rates at a record low 1.0% on Thursday as widely expected. ECB President Mario Draghi was non-committal on whether the bank would participate in Greece's debt restructuring, although he indicated that the bank could pass profits from its Greek bond holdings to euro zone countries.

Asian credit markets were also subdued early on Friday, with the spreads on the iTraxx Asia ex-Japan investment grade index barely changed from Thursday.

The news on the Greek deal spurred a rally in Italian, Spanish and Belgian bonds on Thursday, pushing 10-year Italian yields down to levels seen in early October around 5.48%, while 10-year Spanish yields fell 5 basis points on the day to 5.20%.

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