Asian Stocks Rise, Paring Weekly Slide, on Economic Data

by **Cals** Fri 23 Aug 2013, 10:40

Asian Stocks Rise, Paring Weekly Slide, on Economic Data
By Adam Haigh - Aug 23, 2013 9:52 AM GMT+0800

Asian stocks rose, paring the benchmark equity gauge’s biggest weekly decline in two months, after reports from Europe to the U.S. boosted confidence in the economic recovery and the yen weakened against the dollar.
Asia’s largest carmaker Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), which gets about 75 percent of sales outside Japan, climbed 3.6 percent as the yen touched its lowest level in nearly three weeks against the dollar. BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) rose 1.1 percent in Sydney after copper jumped overnight. Amada Co., a Japanese maker of metal-cutting machines, jumped 5.1 percent after a report that its operating profit will rise by 150 percent.

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Indonesia’s Jakarta Stock Index has led declines among Asian developing markets this week, losing 8.7 percent through yesterday after worse-than-estimated economic data and a report showing the nation’s current-account deficit widened to a record in the second quarter. Photographer: Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg
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6:39

Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Manpreet Gill, senior investment strategist at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore, talks about the outlook for global markets, and his investment strategy. He also discusses the impact of Federal Reserve monetary policy on Asia with John Dawson on Bloomberg Television's "On the Move." (Source: Bloomberg)
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 1.3 percent to 131.33 as of 9:48 a.m. in Hong Kong as nine of the 10 industry groups on the gauge climbed. More than five shares rose for each that fell. The measure is on course to drop 2.3 percent this week amid concern emerging-market economies are slowing and that the Federal Reserve will reduce its stimulus program, known as quantitative easing.
“The fact that the U.S. and European recoveries are improving, albeit fractionally, is a good foundation for global markets,” Matthew Sherwood, head of investment markets research in Sydney at Perpetual Investments, which manages about $25 billion, said in an e-mail. “Markets are clearly in a transitional phase. Investors firstly have to get through the removal of the price distortions that quantitative easing created.”
Factory output in the euro area is improving more than economists estimated and the fewest U.S. workers in more than five years applied for jobless benefits, reports yesterday showed.
Regional Gauges
Japan’s Topix index surged 2.3 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index jumped 1.2 percent and South Korea’s Kospi index advanced 1 percent. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index rose 0.1 percent. Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 0.3 percent and Taiwan’s Taiex increased 0.8 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.8 percent and China’s Shanghai Composite added 0.6 percent.
Stocks extended gains after European Central Bank Governing Council Member Ewald Nowotny said the recent “stream of good news” from the euro-area economy has removed any need to cut interest rates to a fresh record low.
The Asia-Pacific gauge has erased almost all this year’s gains, lagging a 15 percent surge in the S&P 500 Index as growth slows in China and speculation that the Fed will curb stimulus spurred investors to sell assets across Asia and emerging markets.
The MSCI Asia Pacific index yesterday traded at 12.6 times estimated earnings compared with 15 for the S&P 500 Index and 13.9 times for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Emerging Markets
Indonesia’s Jakarta Stock Index (JCI) has led declines among Asian developing markets this week, losing 8.7 percent through yesterday after worse-than-estimated economic data and a report showing the nation’s current-account deficit widened to a record in the second quarter.
U.S. jobless claims in the month ended Aug. 17 declined to 330,500 a week on average, the least since November 2007, Labor Department figures showed yesterday.
In the euro area, a manufacturing gauge indicated expansion for a second month in August, rising to 51.3 from 50.3., London-based Markit Economic said yesterday.
Japanese stocks are leading gains among developed markets this year amid optimism that record stimulus by the Bank of Japan and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic reforms will boost growth. The Topix index dropped about 12 percent through yesterday from its May 22 close, which was the highest since 2008.
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) rose 0.2 percent today. The measure gained 0.9 percent yesterday on data showing improvement in global manufacturing and the American labor market. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 1.1 percent following a three-hour trading halt on the Nasdaq Stock Market after a computer error.
The yen fell 0.4 percent to 99.08 per dollar as of 10:39 a.m. in Tokyo.
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