Asian Stocks Gain on Speculation Slump in Oil Will Cut Costs

By Chua Kong Ho

Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks rose as speculation slumping oil prices will reduce energy costs and spur consumer spending countered a retreat by mining companies and energy producers.

Sony Corp. and Korea Electric Power Corp. gained more than 2 percent after oil fell below $44 a barrel and Merrill Lynch & Co. said prices may dive further. Inpex Corp., Japan’s largest oil explorer, tumbled 5.2 percent. BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company, sank 5 percent as copper and aluminum slumped by the daily limit in Shanghai. Felix Resources Ltd., an Australian coal producer, soared 43 percent after saying it’s received “ongoing interest” in a takeover.

“It’s high time we thought about the positive side of falling oil prices,” Yoshinori Nagano, a senior strategist at Tokyo-based Daiwa Asset Management Co., which manages about $96 billion, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 0.4 percent to 79.78 as of 10:52 a.m. in Tokyo, paring its decline this week to 3.5 percent. Consumer-related stocks had the biggest gains among the index’s 10 industry groups, while measures of raw-materials and energy producers declined.

To contact the reporter for this story: Chua Kong Ho in Shanghai at kchua6@bloomberg.net.