Asian equities show signs of recovery, with South Korea doing the best

South Korea showed the best result at 48 per cent, followed by India with 38 per cent, according to a report from Citibank.

Year to date, Asian equity value traded stands at minus 26 per cent, with South Korea being the strongest, recording a 20-per-cent rise, and Tokyo, Hong Kong and Malaysia among the weakest as markets fell by more than 40 per cent.

China's Shanghai market has also increased by 12 per cent since the start of this year.

As for the Stock Exchange of Thailand, which was hit by domestic political instability in the last quarter of 2008, the index has gained nearly 30 per cent since the start of this year.

The SET index, which showed significant improvement after the Songkran riots in April, topped the 630 mark earlier this month with daily trade volume exceeding Bt20 billion.

Globally, May saw the equity value traded at minus 33 per cent, the eighth consecutive month of decline.

Trading of derivative volumes also fell 2 per cent (-1 per cent on April). In May, six of the 25 equity exchanges worldwide, all of which are Asian markets, and eight of the 19 derivative exchanges saw higher volumes.

Year to date, global equity value traded dropped by a staggering 43 per cent, reflecting the depth of the US-led global financial and economic crisis.

Worldwide, trade volumes of derivatives are down 10 per cent to date, while Asian volumes continued to grow and rise up to 21 per cent in May.

Year to date, Asian derivative volumes have risen 19 per cent but contracted 9 per cent, excluding South Korea, as it continues to remain the leader with an increase of 25 per cent so far this year.

As of this week, numbers from the United States government show that the world's largest economy has already spent US$9.7 trillion (Bt461 trillion) in bailing out its financial institutions and large corporations, while the country's national debt hit $11 trillion.

US corporations, meanwhile, owe a combined $17 trillion, while American household debts run to $13.8 trillion, followed by $1 trillion in credit-card debts and $10.5 trillion in mortgages.

American bank derivatives are estimated to be around $200 trillion.

The recent bankruptcy filing by General Motors is now ranked the third largest of its kind in US history, after Lehman Brothers, whose assets were worth $691 billion, and WorldCom with assets worth $104 billion.

Founded in 1908, GM has been kept afloat by $19.4 billion in government loans this year. A total of $60 billion in government investment is on the way as GM gets nationalised.

In 2008 GM lost $31 billion, bringing its total losses to $82 billion over the past four years as it sold 8.3 million vehicles worldwide, down from 9.37 million a year earlier.

Once the world's largest auto-makers, GM lost its top ranking in 2008 to its Japanese counterpart Toyota.

As a result of its bankruptcy, GM is in talks with potential buyers for some of its brands such as Saab, Saturn and Hummer.

It also plans to end the Pontiac brand by the end of next year, so as to focus on just four names, which together account for 83 per cent of its total sales.

Among its popular models are the Chevy Silverado pickup truck, Chevy Malibu and Chevy Impala sedans, Cadillac CTS luxury sedan and GMC Sierra pickup truck.