By Hanny Wan and Shani Raja
March 25 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks rose, with the regional benchmark index set for its biggest monthly gain in ten years, amid optimism governments worldwide will succeed in reviving lending and global growth.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia climbed 2.9 percent in Sydney as the government offered to guarantee as much as $27 billion of state bonds. Tokyo Electric Power Co., Japan’s largest power company, rose 4.2 percent a day before its shares trade without the right to its latest dividend. Panasonic Corp., the world’s biggest maker of consumer electronics, slid 3.5 percent in Tokyo as Japan’s exports sank by a record last month and Sanyo Electric Co. forecast a loss.
“When you consider how much money governments have thrown at the crisis to get liquidity going, you’d think it’ll have some effect,” said Chris Hall, who helps oversee about $2 billion at Adelaide, South Australia-based Argo Investments. “It’ll take a bit of time to all come through.”
Five stocks advanced for every four that declined on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index, which rose 0.4 percent to 84.20 at 5:49 p.m. in Tokyo. The gauge rallied 19 percent through yesterday from a five-year low on March 9 amid speculation the worst of the financial crisis is over.
Japan’s Topix Index gained 0.7 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 2.1 percent. All other stock markets in the region rose except China, Indonesia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.
New Powers
Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. plunged 14 percent in Tokyo after the drugmaker said it will recall a product. Brambles Ltd., which makes wooden pallets for transporting goods, slumped 12 percent in Sydney after customer PepsiCo Inc. changed suppliers. Little Sheep Group Ltd., which runs hot-pot restaurants in China, surged 14 percent in Hong Kong after Yum! Brands Inc. said it will buy a stake.
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 0.5 percent as President Barack Obama said in a televised news conference late yesterday there are “signs of progress” in efforts to revive the U.S. economy. The stock gauge fell 2 percent yesterday as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called for new powers to take over and dismantle failing financial firms.
The U.S. two days ago announced plans to rid banks of toxic-real estate assets, following government pledges last week to purchase debt from lenders.
The new measures, along with reports of strong starts to the year from Barclays Plc and Standard Chartered Plc, helped the MSCI Asia Pacific Index jump 12 percent this month, putting it on course for its biggest monthly advance since March 1999.
The average valuation of companies on the gauge climbed yesterday to 16.1 times reported profit, the highest level since Dec. 28, 2007, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Government Guarantee
Commonwealth Bank, Australia’s second-largest by market value, climbed 2.9 percent to A$35.38 in Sydney. Westpac Banking Corp., the biggest by market value, rose 2.5 percent to A$19.62. National Australia Bank Ltd., the country’s biggest by assets, added 2.8 percent to A$20.37.
Australian Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan offered to guarantee as much as A$39 billion ($27 billion) in state bonds, the latest government measure to help alleviate the global financial crisis.
Among stocks in Japan that are ex-dividend tomorrow, Tokyo Electric rose 4.2 percent to 2,620 yen. Mitsui & Co., Japan’s No. 2 trading company, jumped 5.2 percent to 1,071 yen.
Hunting For Dividends
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Japan’s largest drugmaker, rose 3.3 percent to 3,770 yen. More than 2,800 Japanese companies trade without rights to a dividend, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“Investors hunting for dividends are supporting the market,” said Hiroshi Chano, who helps manage the equivalent of $7.3 billion at Yasuda Asset Management Co.
Panasonic, which is acquiring Sanyo, dropped 3.5 percent to 1,149 yen. Sony Corp., which gets 77 percent of its sales outside Japan, sank 2.4 percent to 2,075 yen.
The Finance Ministry said Japan’s overseas shipments plummeted 49.4 percent from a year earlier, the sharpest decline since at least 1980, when the government started to keep comparable data. Economists predicted a 47.6 percent drop.
The deepening global recession has put the MSCI Asia Pacific and the MSCI World Index on course for their sixth- straight quarterly declines. The Asian gauge has lost 6 percent since the start of the year, while the MSCI World Index slumped 10 percent.
Little Sheep
Sanyo dropped 1.4 percent to 137 yen. Sanyo, the world’s largest producer of rechargeable batteries used in electronics, yesterday forecast a net loss of 90 billion ($921 million) for the year to March 31, because of deteriorating chip and electric-parts operations.
The company predicted in January that it would break even.
Mitsubishi Tanabe plunged 14 percent to 983 yen, its sharpest slump since October 1987. The company said it will recall its genetically modified Medway plasma product because of manipulated data.
Brambles slumped 12 percent to A$4.99. The company said it lost a contract to supply pallets to a unit of Pepsico Inc. Little Sheep rallied 14 percent to HK$2.98. Yum! said it has agreed to buy 20 percent of Inner Mongolia’s Little Sheep for $63 million.
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., the nation’s largest oil refiner, jumped 5.5 percent to HK$4.64 in Hong Kong after the mainland government unexpectedly raised fuel prices by as much as 5 percent starting today.
To contact the reporters for this story: Hanny Wan in Hong Kong at hwan3@bloomberg.net; Shani Raja in Sydney at sraja4@bloomberg.net.
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