Japanese stocks rose, with the Topix index completing its fifth month of gains, the longest winning streak since the start of the nation's 14-year economic slump.
Exporters such as Tokyo Electron Ltd led the advance after reports showed factory production expanded at home and the US economy grew faster than some economists' estimates, suggesting that earnings will be bolstered by rising global demand. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose for the sixth month yesterday after a government report said US consumer spending rose last month at the fastest pace in four months.
"It's a worldwide recovery and it's happening in the US and Japan, so Japan is the market you want be playing," said Angelo Corbetta, who helps manage the equivalent of US$120 billion globally as the Singapore-based head of Far East investments at Pioneer Investment Management Ltd.
The Topix climbed 0.9 percent to 1002.01 at the 3pm close in Tokyo yesterday, bringing the rise in August to 6.7 percent.
The rally marks the index's fifth monthly advance, the longest since the period ended January 1989.
Business spending
Elsewhere in the region, Taiwan's TWSE Index jumped 2.3 percent, completing its fourth month of gains. Computer-related stocks such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and United Micro-electronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) rallied after US business spending on equipment and software rose at the quickest pace in three years.
Benchmarks in Hong Kong and South Korea had gained for five consecutive months. Hong Kong's Li & Fung Ltd, which gets three-quarters of its sales from North America, and exporters in South Korea including Hyundai Motor Co, advanced on optimism growth in the US will boost demand for their products.
Only stock indexes in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines declined in Asia.
Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average climbed 1.2 percent to 10,343.55 yesterday. For August, the measure advanced 8.2 percent, its biggest monthly gain since June 1999.
Tokyo Electron added 3.4 percent to ?8,220. The world's second-largest maker of chip-production equipment gets more than half its revenue from abroad. Kyocera Corp rallied 4.5 percent to ?7,500. The world's largest maker of ceramic packaging used to protect microchips gets half its revenue overseas.
Japan's industrial production in July rose a seasonally adjusted 0.5 percent, government figures showed. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected a 0.2 percent gain.
Benchmarks reached record highs in December 1989. Since then, both the Topix and Nikkei have lost some two-thirds of their value, while the economy has struggled through three recessions in the past 12 years.
Nikkei futures expiring next month advanced 0.9 percent to 10,330 in Osaka and rose 1 percent to 10,345 in Singapore.
Purchases of software and equipment by US businesses in the second quarter grew at an 8.2 percent annual rate, according to a US Department of Commerce report. That's the quickest pace since June 2000.
Taiwan
Taiwan's Hon Hai, which makes PlayStation 2 video-game consoles for Sony Corp and personal computers for Hewlett-Packard Co, surged 6.8 percent yesterday to NT$141. The company's second quarter profit increased 31 percent.
UMC, the world's second-largest maker of computer chips on a subcontracting basis that counts on the US for three-quarters of its sales, jumped 6.5 percent to NT$28.
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