By Yoshiaki Nohara and Toshiro Hasegawa - Jan 19, 2012 9:40 AM GMT+0700
Enlarge image 
A pedestrian walks past an electronic stock board outside a securities firm in Tokyo. Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg
Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Amit Rajpal, manager of global financial funds for Marshall Wace LLP, talks about China banking stocks. He also discusses U.S. financial stocks and Europe's sovereign debt crisis. He speaks in Hong Kong with Susan Li on Bloomberg Television's "First Up." (Source: Bloomberg)
Asian stocks rose for a third day after confidence among U.S. homebuilders beat estimates and the International Monetary Fund said it plans to expand its lending resources to counter Europe’s debt crisis.
Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), the world’s biggest carmaker by market value, advanced 1.8 percent in Tokyo. Sumco Corp. (3436) led gains in semiconductor-related companies after ASML Holding NV, Europe’s largest maker of semiconductor equipment, forecast higher first- quarter orders. Agile Property Holdings (3383) Ltd., a Chinese property developer, rose 2.2 percent in Hong Kong on speculation China may relax capital requirements for lenders.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 1 percent to 119.34 as of 11:18 a.m. in Tokyo, with more than three stocks gaining for each that fell. The measure is headed for the highest close since Nov. 9.
“We see an improvement not only in manufacturing and labor data, but also in the sluggish housing market, boosting confidence for the U.S. economic outlook,” said Mitsushige Akino, who oversees about $600 million in Tokyo at Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co. “It’s good that the IMF is also enhancing the safety net for European financial firms, while the European Central Bank has eased tensions by injecting capital into them.”
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 1.3 percent and South Korea’s Kospi Index gained 1.1 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.3 percent, paring earlier gains, after a report showed the nation’s employers unexpectedly cut workers in December. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 1.2 percent.
U.S. Data, IMF
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.1 percent today. The index advanced 1.1 percent in New York yesterday as a report showed confidence among U.S. homebuilders rose in January to the highest level since 2007. The IMF is proposing to raise its lending capacity by as much as $500 billion to safeguard the global economy.
Equities also gained as a finance ministry official told reporters that Greece’s government could forge an agreement with private creditors by the end of this week after talks resumed in Athens yesterday.
Exporters advanced. Toyota, which gets 28 percent of its sales in North America, added 1.8 percent to 2,630 yen in Tokyo. Sony Corp. (6758), Japan’s No. 1 exporter of consumer electronics, rose 2.3 percent to 1,334 yen.
James Hardie Industries SE (JHX), a building-materials supplier that gets almost 70 percent of sales from the U.S. increased 1.8 percent to A$7.40. Samsung Electronics Co. (005930), South Korea’s biggest exporter of consumer electronics, gained 3.1 percent to 1.06 million won.
Chipmakers Rise
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 3.8 percent this year through yesterday, compared with a 4 percent increase by the S&P 500 Index and a 3.7 percent loss by the Stoxx Europe 600 Index. Stocks in the Asian benchmark are valued at 12.4 times estimated earnings on average, compared with 12.5 times for the S&P 500 and 10.2 times for the Stoxx 600.
Semiconductor-related firms climbed after ASML Chief Executive Officer Eric Meurice said yesterday that the company expects a “healthy start” to the year with first-quarter orders forecast to rise. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which tracks the performance of 30 industry stocks, rose 5 percent yesterday.
Sumco, a maker of silicon wafers for semiconductors, rose 9.2 percent to 606 yen, the biggest winner on the Asia-Pacific index. Tokyo Electron Ltd. (8035), a manufacturer of chipmaking gear, gained 3.2 percent to 4,365 yen. Elpida Memory Inc. (6665), a Japanese maker of semiconductors, rose 3.7 percent to 336 yen.
China’s Policy
China’s banking regulator is considering a plan to relax capital requirements for lenders after the world’s second- largest economy expanded at the slowest pace in 10 quarters, four people with knowledge of the matter said. The Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks the bigger of China’s stock exchanges, rose 1.7 percent.
“There’s still a lot of news we’ve got to overcome, in particular out of China,” said Belinda Allen, a senior investment analyst at Colonial First State Global Asset Management in Sydney, which oversees about $145 billion. “We still need to see signs of any policy easing coming out of China, and I think that would lead to a more upbeat outlook.”
Agile Property gained 2.2 percent to HK$8.72 in Hong Kong. China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd. (688) rose 1.9 percent to HK$14.72. Hitachi Construction Machinery Co (6305), a Japanese machinery maker that generates 26 percent of its revenue in China, advanced 3.2 percent 1,465 yen.
Lynas Corp., an Australian rare-earths developer, rose 6.6 percent to A$1.13, the third-biggest gain on the Asia-Pacific index, after Malaysia’s Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed said his cabinet will soon decide on granting the company a license to refine rare earths in the country.
To contact the reporters on this story: Yoshiaki Nohara in Tokyo at ynohara1@bloomberg.net; Toshiro Hasegawa in Tokyo at thasegawa6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John McCluskey at j.mccluskey@bloomberg.ne
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment