People, markets in Asia becoming inured to bombs

By Raju Gopalakrishnan

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - It's becoming a sickeningly familiar scene on television sets across the world -- a sudden bomb attack, horrific pictures of the dead and injured, bodies being pulled out of rubble and disbelieving relatives weeping.

It could be in Iraq, Indonesia's Bali, southern Thailand or, like last weekend, in New Delhi.

But as the blasts in the Indian capital reinforced, life quickly gets back to normal -- at least in Asia.

At least 59 people were killed in bomb blasts in Delhi bazaars on Saturday evening, but by Sunday itself, shops in these areas had re-stocked and re-opened. Most did good business.

Teenagers were playing cricket as usual on the city's lawns the day after the bombs and Delhi's many parks were full of early morning walkers.

"We have to be strong and face up to terrorism," said Amit Gupta, a bank executive. "These acts of men desperate to make their presence felt will not affect the spirit of our city."

Pretty much the same seems to be happening in Indonesia, which has suffered badly from terrorism. Early in October, at least 22 people died in suicide bomb attacks on the resort island of Bali, the region's premier holiday destination.

Three years ago, over 200 people were killed in bomb explosions in two Bali nightclubs packed with tourists. Those bombs, just over a year after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, caused a huge exodus of tourists and significantly hurt the country's economy.

But there were hardly any hotel cancellations this year. And despite widespread anger at the bomb attacks, Balinese seem determined that life will go on.

Peter Semone, vice president of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, said that following a string of bombings around the world in recent years, tourists had become more resilient.

"Is it going to affect Bali tourism? It will be naive to say it will not," he said earlier this month. "(But) I think we live in a new (situation)."

Most Indonesians appear to agree with that sentiment.

Rini, a cigarette and snack vendor in Jakarta, said the first Bali bombing shocked her, but she wasn't surprised to hear of the latest one.

"It's an ordinary thing," she said. "It can happen anywhere, not just in Indonesia. The most important thing is to increase security."

MARKETS ALSO STOIC

The stoicism is well reflected in the region's financial markets.

After the first Bali blasts, Indonesia's stock market fell 10 percent, the rupiah sank three percent and investors globally ditched stocks for the safety of bonds and gold.

This time, the rupiah and Indonesian stocks shed just about one percent each in a knee-jerk reaction and soon recovered.

"I think the market has become more sophisticated in pricing in these kind of events," Arwani Pranadjaya, an analyst at Jakarta's Mandiri Sekuritas, told Reuters.

In India, where stocks had been at historic highs earlier this month, the market climbed on Monday.

"In spite of the unfortunate blasts in Delhi, the outlook for most markets remains unchanged," said Siddharth Mathur, at JP Morgan in Mumbai.

"We don't expect the events to have a lasting impact on the economy or on consumer confidence and as a result foreign investment flows are unlikely to be materially impacted."

In Thailand, despite continuing bloody violence in the Muslim-dominated south, stocks climbed to a six-month high by September this year. They have since slid back, but mainly because of rising interest rates and an expected rash of new stock issues.

But the terrorism attacks in these countries pale in comparison to the fury of nature. Last year's tsunami left about 232,000 people dead or missing, mainly in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.

The devastating earthquake in northern Pakistan on Oct. 8 killed over 50,000 people.

"I can die inside my house if there is an earthquake," said advertising firm executive Anuradha Swaminathan in Delhi, speaking after Saturday's blasts. "We have to take these things in our stride.

Ken Masuda, a senior dealer in equities at Shinko Securities in Tokyo, said global markets had grown more resilient to attacks and natural disasters in Asia.

"It seems that unless something happens in the United States, it is not a big deal for the market.

"No matter how many terror attacks happen in India or how many tens of thousands die in an earthquake in Pakistan ... for a lot of investors, they believe that if Americans get hurt then the economy will crash."

(Reporting by Harry Suhartono, Adriana Nina Kusuma and Jerry Norton in JAKARTA; Unni Krishnan and Hari Ramachandran in NEW DELHI; Anirban Nag in MUMBAI; and David Dolan in TOKYO)