By Masaki Kondo
Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks rose, lifting the MSCI Asia Pacific Index for a fourth day, as higher U.S. sales at Toyota Motor Corp. and Nintendo Co. fueled optimism demand in the world’s biggest economy is recovering.
Toyota, the world’s biggest carmaker, added 2.5 percent and Nintendo climbed 6.9 percent. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. led gains by Japanese banks with a 5.5 percent jump on expectations further capital raising needs will be limited. China Shenhua Energy Co., the country’s top coal producer, added 2 percent in Hong Kong as plunging temperatures in Beijing stoked speculation demand for fuels will swell.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.5 percent to 124.27 as of 5:54 p.m. Tokyo time, taking its advance in the last four trading days to 3.7 percent. The gauge climbed 37 percent in the past 12 months as lower borrowing costs and spending packages around the world dragged economies out of recession.
“Demand is on a steady recovery worldwide,” said Yoshinori Nagano, a senior strategist in Tokyo at Daiwa Asset Management Co., which oversees the equivalent of $94 billion. “The market and economy will be better in 2010.”
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average advanced 0.5 percent in Japan, where Kyodo News said the government will accept the resignation of Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii. Taiwan’s Taiex Index climbed 1.4 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.6 percent.
China’s Outlook
South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.9 percent, led by Hynix Semiconductor Inc., which jumped 5.1 percent after a newspaper reported the United Arab Emirates offered to buy a stake.
The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.9 percent. A China stock rally may fade from the second quarter as inflation triggers “significant policy tightening” by the government, Ma Jun, Deutsche Bank AG’s Hong Kong-based China economist, wrote in a note to clients.
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index retreated 0.3 percent. The index added 0.3 percent yesterday as a Commerce Department report showed factory orders rose 1.1 percent in November, more than twice as much as economists had estimated.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 34 percent last year amid expectations growth in the region, driven by China, will outperform the rest of the world. The Asian index’s 2009 advance outpaced gains of 23 percent by the S&P 500 and 28 percent for Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index.
Australia’s home-building permits rose 5.9 percent in November from October, the country’s statistics bureau reported today. Reports in the past week showed China’s manufacturing expanded at the fastest pace in 20 months last month and South Korea’s exports surged 33.7 percent in December.
Rising Sales
Toyota, which gets 32 percent of its sales from North America, rose 2.5 percent to 3,900 yen. The company’s U.S. sales surged 32 percent in December from a year earlier.
Australia’s Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries also reported today that sales of new cars and trucks in the country surged by a record 15.9 percent in December compared with the same month a year earlier.
Nintendo jumped 6.9 percent to 24,500 yen in Osaka trading. U.S. sales of the motion-sensing Wii probably exceeded 3 million last month, the Kyoto-based company said on its Web site. The company sold 2.15 million Wii players in the U.S. during December 2008, according to estimates by research firm NPD Group.
Toyota and Nintendo were the biggest and fourth-biggest contributors to the MSCI Asia Pacific Index’s advance. The gauge’s rally drove its 14-day relative strength index to 68 today, nearing the 70 threshold that some traders use as a sign to sell.
Japanese Banks
“Technical indicators show the market is increasingly overheating,” said Hiroichi Nishi, an equities manager at Nikko Cordial Securities Inc. in Tokyo.
Sumitomo Mitsui, Japan’s No. 2 bank by market value, climbed 5.5 percent to 2,800 yen, while smaller rival Mizuho Financial Group Inc. surged 6.1 percent to 174 yen. Banks accounted for 26 percent of the Topix index’s 1.3 percent gain.
Sumitomo Mitsui may announce plans this week to raise about 800 billion yen ($8.7 billion) in a share sale, people familiar with the matter said. An agreement with shareholders not to sell new stock expired Dec. 21, freeing the bank to add to the 861 billion yen it raised in a share sale six months ago. The lender may unveil the plan today, the Nikkei newspaper said.
“With all the capital raising, investors were avoiding Japanese banks,” said Masaru Hamasaki, chief strategist at Tokyo-based Toyota Asset Management Co., which oversees the equivalent of $14 billion. “With Sumitomo Mitsui about to announce a share sale, the bad news is out for a while. People are starting to buy them back.”
Chilling Weather
A gauge of energy companies posted the second-steepest advance among the 10 industry groups in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index. Technology shares had the third-biggest advance.
China Shenhua added 2 percent to HK$40.50 in Hong Kong. China Coal Energy Co. rose 5.3 percent to HK$15.88. Beijing’s temperatures this morning were the lowest for this time of year since 1971, China Meteorological Administration said.
Hynix, the No. 2 maker of computer-memory chips globally, jumped 5.1 percent to 24,550 won. The United Arab Emirates government offered in November to buy a stake in Hynix, the Electronic Times reported, citing an unidentified South Korean government official.
Japan Airlines Corp. sank 6.7 percent to 84 yen and was the biggest loser on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index. The Development Bank of Japan, the company’s biggest creditor, favors bankruptcy proceedings to restructure the airline, Nikkei English News reported. The Ministry of Finance, which controls the lender, also supports the bankruptcy option, the newspaper said.
To contact the reporter for this story: Masaki Kondo in Tokyo at mkondo3@bloomberg.net.
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