Asian stocks rose for a third straight week after Japan intervened to weaken the yen and US and Chinese economic reports buoyed confidence global growth will strengthen.
Sony Corp and Honda Motor Co, which get more than 80 percent of their sales abroad, climbed more than 6 percent in Tokyo as the weaker yen boosted exporters’ prospects. BHP Billiton Ltd, the world’s largest mining company, gained 2.5 percent in Sydney on speculation commodity demand will increase.
In Taipei, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world’s largest contract maker of electronics, jumped 6.5 percent after saying sales surged last month.
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index increased 2 percent to 124.26 in the past five days after China’s industrial output grew at a faster pace than economists estimated and higher-than-forecast US wholesale inventories.
The advance extended last week’s 1.5 percent gain, which was fueled by US and Australian employment reports, and a rise of 2.7 percent the week before after data confirmed US and Chinese manufacturing growth.
South Korea’s KOSPI Index climbed 1.4 percent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index advanced 1.7 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index increased 3.4 percent in the week. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 4.2 percent as the government acted on Wednesday to stem the yen’s surge to the strongest against the US dollar in 15 years.
Taiwan’s TAIEX rose 58.58 points, or 0.72 percent, to 8,158.33 at the 1:30pm close of Taipei trading on Friday, rebounding from losses in the previous session as investors took hints from the gains posted by other regional markets, dealers said.
The benchmark gauge advanced 3.4 percent this week, the biggest gain in 10 weeks.
The market gained momentum from buying focusing on companies with closer business ties to China, dealers said.
“Judging from the surge of the regional markets, I suspect additional funds from the West were poured into Asian markets,” TLG Asset Management (台壽保投信) analyst Arch Shih (施博元) said.
“Given the concerns over the fundamentals of the US and European economies, the foreign buying in Asia was no surprise,” Shih said.
Shih said local banks and airline companies continued to attract attention on high hopes that warming business ties with China will further boost earnings.
Other markets on Friday:
Manila slipped 0.65 percent, or 25.11 points, from Thursday to 3,979.35.
Wellington closed up 0.52 percent, or 16.63 points, from Thursday at 3,212.26.
Mumbai rose 0.91 percent, or 177.26 points, from Thursday to 19,594.75.
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