Moody's, the international credit rating agency, has assigned the highest rating (AAA) among government bonds of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to Singapore government bonds. The Malaysian government's Ringgit-denominated bonds received the next highest rating among the ASEAN members followed by Thailand and the Philippines.

Regarding Singapore-dollar denominated bonds, the Moody's investor services said Singapore run ``surpluses for many years and has very large reserves and investments.''

The rating agency gave A3 to Malaysian government bonds and BAA1 to Thailand's Baht-denominated bonds. The Philippines' Peso-denominated bonds received BAA3 ratings while Indonesia's Rupiah-denominated bonds was assigned B3 rating, according to Moody's report published on Friday.

Despite the economic downturn in the region -- which is also affecting Singapore -- Moody's said it believes ``the overall public sector financial balance will remain in surplus thoughnarrowly defined government budget balance could record a small deficit.''

Japan's steelmaker stumbles

Japan's major steelmaker NKK Corporation struggled on the Tokyo stock marketafter a subsidiary said it was going into liquidation in the nation's largest post-War manufacturing collapse. Shares in NKK finished the morning session down 16 yen, or 14.2 per cent, at 97 yen, and led the market in trading volume.

Late Thursday, the company's subsidiary Toa Steel Company Limited said it was going under after earnings collapsed as steel demand slowed and costs mounted. The firm had 260 billion yen ($ 1.9 billion) in debt, the leading credit research firm Teikoku Data Bank estimated.

``Under the current circumstances, with the economic slump being worse than expected, we came to the conclusion that we have no choice but to accept Toa's decision to give up reconstruction and liquidate,'' NKK said in a statement.

Kia creditors for fresh bidding

Creditors of South Korea's Kia MotorsCorporation began preparing for asecond round of bidding for the firm, with officials hinting that some of Kia's debts will be written off. Kia and its main creditor Korea Development Bank (KDB) sent invitations to the five original bidders for the failed company, asking them to submit letters of intent by September 10, KDB officials said.

The new process began after the first round of the crucial auction was aborted Earlier this week. The invitations were sent to two US giants, General Motors (GM) and Ford Motor Company, and three local automakers -- Hyundai Motor, Daewoo Motor and Samsung Motors -- who turned in their letters of intent in the first round.

According to the time-table for the second round auction, KDB will send detailed guidelines for bidding, including possible debt write-offs and bidding conditions, on September 11.