Asian stocks advanced for the third week as higher retail sales and expanding manufacturing activities in the US boosted confidence in the global economic recovery.
Nintendo Co, the maker of Wii gaming consoles, surged 16 percent after reporting increased US sales. PetroChina Co (中石油), China’s biggest oil producer, gained 8.2 percent after crude oil rallied to its highest-level in 14 months. Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd (和記電訊國際) jumped 32 percent in Hong Kong after its parent offered to buy out the company.
“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 US$94 billion. “The market and economy will be better in 2010.”
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index rose 3.1 percent to 124.22 in the first week of trading for this year. The gauge climbed 34 percent last year, the biggest annual gain since 2003, as central banks cut borrowing costs and governments boosted spending to drag their economies out of recession.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 2.4 percent this week on speculation overseas earnings will climb as the yen weakened to its lowest level against the US dollar since August following comments by Finance Minister Naoto Kan.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 1.9 percent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index added 0.9 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 2.5 percent on concern government steps to curb lending growth and property speculation will slow expansion in the world’s third-largest economy.
Optimism for global growth grew this week as the US government reported a 1.1 percent increase in factory orders that was more than twice as much as economists anticipated and Retail Metrics Inc said store sales at US retailers last month climbed 3 percent, the biggest gain since April 2008.
Taiwan’s exports climbed last month at the fastest pace since February 1995, the government said on Thursday.
Nintendo surged 16 percent to ¥25,580. US sales of the motion-sensing Wii gaming console exceeded 3 million last month, the Kyoto-based company said on Jan. 6.
The Shanghai Composite Index completed its first weekly decline in three. China’s move during the week to raise the cost of three-month bills will probably lead to the nation’s first interest-rate increase in almost three years by September, a survey of economists showed.
Taiwan’s TAIEX index rose 43.50, or 0.5 percent, from Thursday to 8,280.90 at the close of Taipei trading on Friday. It added 1.1 percent this week, the third straight week of gains.
Plastic companies rose on higher prices for their raw materials used to make plastics. Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑) gained 0.9 percent to NT$70.60, the highest since June 2008.
The companies may benefit after prices of polyethylene surged 6.7 percent on Thursday owing to a shortage at Saudi Basic Industries Corp, KGI Securities Co (凱基證券) said in a morning note on Friday.
China Steel Corp (中鋼), Taiwan’s largest maker of the metal, gained 2.5 percent to NT$34.85, the highest since Sept. 19, 2008, amid speculation that producers in China and Taiwan may raise prices, said David Li (李衍磐), a trader at Daiwa Securities SMBC-Cathay Co (大和國泰).
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