By Patrick Rial and Ian C. Sayson
Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks rose, lifting the MSCI Asia Pacific Index to the highest level in a year, as Australian business confidence jumped, computer-memory prices gained and gold rose above $1,000 an ounce.
National Australia Bank Ltd. climbed 3.8 percent in Sydney after the lender’s sentiment index jumped to a six-year high. Elpida Memory Inc., Japan’s largest maker of dynamic random access memory, gained 5.4 percent after the benchmark price for chips climbed to the highest level since August 2008. Newcrest Mining Ltd., Australia’s No. 1 gold producer, jumped 3.7 percent.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 1.5 percent to 115.91 as of 7:20 p.m. in Tokyo, the highest level since Sept. 24, 2008. The gauge has climbed 64 percent from a more than five-year low on March 9 on speculation stimulus measures worldwide will revive the global economy.
“The market hasn’t given up on the economic recovery story,” said Olan Caperina, who helps manage about $7.75 billion at BPI Asset Management Inc. in Manila. “There’s optimism that the market has bottomed out, but you need earnings and consistent economic data to push share prices higher.”
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average advanced 0.7 percent. JVC Kenwood Holdings Inc. surged 31 percent as the Nikkei newspaper said the company may beat profit forecasts. Limiting gains, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. sank 1.8 percent as central bank figures showed loan growth slowed.
Cabinet Reshuffle
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index added 1.6 percent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 2.1 percent. Taiwan’s Taiex Index climbed 1.2 percent on speculation a cabinet reshuffle will resolve a political crisis. In Seoul, SK Energy Co. surged 15 percent on speculation third-quarter earnings will rebound.
Futures on the U.S. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced 1 percent. Markets in the U.S. were shut yesterday for a public holiday.
National Australia Bank rose 3.8 percent to A$28.34 after its index of business confidence, based on a survey of more than 550 companies, climbed to the highest level since October 2003. Commonwealth Bank of Australia increased 2.1 percent to A$46.83.
National Australia today also scrapped an earlier forecast that the Australian economy would stagnate this year, saying gross domestic product will rise 0.6 percent in 2009 and 2.1 percent in 2010.
Governments globally have authorized more than $2 trillion in relief measures to bring an end to the worst slowdown since the Great Depression. Countries including Japan and Germany have already started to expand, while $485 billion of stimulus has helped China’s growth to reaccelerate.
Chip Prices
“There are still a lot of things to be worried about, but the economic cycle will take care of them naturally,” said Masaru Hamasaki, a senior strategist at Toyota Asset Management Co., which oversees the equivalent of $14 billion. “Earnings and the economy will continue to improve.”
Technology companies on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index accounted for 13 percent of the gauge’s advance today as prices of the benchmark 1-gigabit computer-memory chip climbed to $1.71 yesterday, from as low as 58 cents in December, according to Dramexchange Technology Inc., operator of Asia’s biggest spot market for the chips.
Elpida rose 5.4 percent to 1,225 yen. Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest maker of computer-memory chips, added 1 percent to 781,000 won.
Advantest Corp., the world’s biggest maker of memory-chip testers, gained 1.5 percent to 2,360 yen. The company expects July-September orders for its chip-testing equipment to exceed levels for the preceding quarter, the Nikkei reported.
Rising Sales
AU Optronics Corp. added 3 percent to NT$34 after Taiwan’s largest maker of liquid-crystal displays sold 23 million shares of United Microelectronics Corp. for a profit of NT$70.7 million ($2.2 million). AU Optronics also said sales in August rose 15.9 percent from the prior month.
Investors including Daiwa SB Investment Ltd.’s Koichi Ogawa questioned whether stocks can extend the six-month rally given how expensive equities are. Stocks on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index are priced at an average 23.5 times estimated profit, up from 15.1 times at the low in March.
“We’re currently without a major catalyst,” said Ogawa, chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB in Tokyo, which manages the equivalent of $37 billion. “This time of year is traditionally the weakest for stocks and on top of that valuations are no longer cheap.”
Gold Prices
Japan’s Nikkei has lost an average of 2.1 percent in September in the last two decades, compared with a 0.3 percent increase in other months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
In Sydney, Newcrest gained 3.7 percent to A$33.75 as gold futures rose above $1,000 an ounce for the first time since February. Zijin Mining Group Co., China’s largest gold producer, jumped 7.8 percent to HK$7.74 in Hong Kong.
BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s No. 1 mining company, climbed 2.2 percent to A$37.58, while Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third-largest mining company, gained 2.2 percent to A$57.79. A gauge of six metals, including nickel and copper, climbed 0.7 percent in London yesterday to the highest close since Aug. 28.
Mitsubishi UFJ, Japan’s biggest publicly traded bank, retreated 1.8 percent to 543 yen, and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. sank 2.1 percent to 3,710 yen. Lending growth at Japanese banks slowed in August for an eighth-straight month, Bank of Japan figures showed today, as companies cut spending and unemployment climbed to a record.
Raising Capital?
Meanwhile, the Group of 20 finance ministers said over the weekend banks need to increase the amount and quality of so- called core capital. Japanese banks may be disadvantaged if preferred shares are not allowed to be counted toward capital, the Nikkei newspaper reported.
“Talk about banks raising capital levels is going to put pressure on Japanese lenders because of their small cushions,” said Daiwa’s Ogawa. “We could be looking at additional equity financing from some lenders.”
JVC Kenwood surged 31 percent to 64 yen. The company may have twice as much operating profit as forecast in the quarter to Sept. 30, the Nikkei reported. The company expanded its share of the U.S. market for car navigation systems and audio devices, the paper said.
SK Energy, South Korea’s largest oil refiner, soared 15 percent to 118,000 won. Third-quarter operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, may double from the previous quarter, HI Investment & Securities Co. wrote in a report today.
Farglory Land Development Co., Taiwan’s No. 1 construction company by value, surged by 6.9 percent to NT$73.20. Taiwan’s Premier Liu Chao-shiuan and his Cabinet will resign on Sept. 10 to take responsibility for the government’s poor response to a deadly typhoon last month.
“The replacements are far more competent,” Peter Kurz, head of Taiwan Research at Citigroup Inc., wrote in an e-mailed note. “This is positive for the market.”
To contact the reporter for this story: Patrick Rial in Tokyo at prial@bloomberg.net; Ian C. Sayson in Manila at isayson@bloomberg.net.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment