Asian indexes rebounded Thursday, with Japanese stocks bouncing back on gains for exporters such as Nintendo Co. and Honda Motor Co. after an advance on Wall Street, while Hong Kong stocks snapped a four-day losing streak on resource issues such as Cnooc and Aluminum Corp. of China.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock index jumped 243.36 points, or 1.88 percent, to 13,215.42 points, while the Hang Seng Index advanced 228.39 points, or 1.0 percent, to 23,342.73
Shares of Nintendo jumped 4%, Nikon Corp. advanced 3.6% and Honda Motor rose 1.6%, encouraged by the rise on Wall Street.
Japanese financial and insurance stocks rebounded from days of selling and mining and energy stocks followed commodity prices higher. Insurance company Millea Holdings rose 5.2 per cent, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group gained 2.2 per cent.
Yahoo Japan climbed 5.4 percent on news that Yahoo Inc. decided to extend its deadline for nominating board members, giving it more time to work out a possible deal with Time Warner's AOL unit. The news fueled hopes that Microsoft Corp., which is offering US$41.5 billion bid to acquire Yahoo Inc. may eventually have to raise its offer, traders said.
Steel shares were lower after Nippon Steel Corp. said it has suspended Australia coal price talks and cut its profit outlook for the fiscal year ending March because of rising input costs. Nippon Steel lost 2.5 per cent.
China's Shanghai Composite, which tracks both yuan-denominated A shares and foreign currency-denominated B shares, ended 1.6% up at 4,360.99, after dropping as low as 4,260.79 earlier in the day.
Elsewhere:
New Zealand's NZX 50 index dropped 0.4% to 3,603.83.
South Korea's Kospi added 1.2% at 1,697.44.
Taiwan's Weighted index climbed 2.1% to 8,658.64.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 1.1% to 5,435.50, also overcoming early volatility that pushed it down to 5,370.60 during the session.
with files from other wire services
