Hyundai Motor Co, South Korea's largest automaker, which gets more than a half of its sales overseas, climbed 1.4 percent to 49,900 won this week. Honda Motor Co, Japan's No. 2 automaker, climbed 3.3 percent to ?4,680 for the week.
"It's easier to bet on automakers because of their great performance in the US and Europe," said Youichi Yanai, who oversees the equivalent of US$28 billion as chief fund manager at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Ltd. "This is one sector which has shown decent profit growth so far, and remains competitive."
China Life's shares surged 25 percent to HK$4.575 from an offer price of HK$3.625. Investors ordered more than US$80 billion of stock, bankers involved said earlier. Its American depositary receipts advanced 27 percent in New York trading on Friday. Each ADR is equal to 40 shares.
The company, the first Chinese insurer to trade its shares in the US, sold 6.47 billion shares last week, raising money to strengthen its capital.
"There's some value in buying something that has a dominant market position in a very high growth country like China," Glenn Henricksen, who runs CIF Consultants in Hong Kong, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
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