Asian markets rallied Wednesday as financials such as Mizuho Financial Group, ICICI Bank and Macquarie Group were spurred by easing concerns about the well-being of U.S. banks. Airline and automobile stocks also advanced as crude-oil prices extended losses and fell below the $127-a-barrel level in Asian trading.
The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo gained almost 1 percent to close at 13,312.93 while the key Hang Seng index closed up 607.07 points or 2.69% at 23,134.55.
Mizuho Financial Group surged 4.3%, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group gained 3.2% and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group climbed 3.3%. Among property developers, Mitsubishi Estate soared 6.9%, Sumitomo Realty & Development rallied 7.3% and Mitsui Fudosan advanced 3.9%. Top brokerage Nomura Holdings added 0.9% and Daiwa Securities Group rose 3.7%.
Oil and gas miner Inpex Holdings plummeted 4.2% after oil prices continued to slide. Nippon Mining Holdings advanced 1.0%, but Nippon Oil dropped 0.7%.
Among exporters, Cannon added 0.4%, Honda Motor jumped 2.8% and Komatsu gained 2.3%, while Sony closed unchanged and Toyota Motor declined 0.8%. The Nikkei newspaper reported that Toyota will cut its worldwide group sales target for 2008 to the lower 9.5 million level from the planned 9.85 million units.
Hitachi rose by 1.7% after the Nikkei newspaper reported that the electronics giant and General Electric would jointly develop mid-sized nuclear reactors.
The Chinese market closed lower, led by coal and non-ferrous metals producers. Airline stocks surged, amid speculation about merger activity in the industry and a fall in oil prices. The Shanghai Composite Index closed down 8.27 points or 0.29% at 2,837.85, extending Tuesday's losses.
Among coal producers, China Shenhua Energy lost 2.0% and Yanzhou Coal Mining shed 3.1% on falling oil prices. Gold stocks fell following a decline in gold prices. Shandong Gold-Mining plunged 5.1% and Zijin Mining fell 2.5%.
Property stocks fell, with China Merchants Property Development losing 2.3% and China Vanke falling 1.4%.
In the airline sector, China Eastern Airlines surged 4.2%, Air China added 0.9% and China Southern Airlines rose 1.7%.
Among refiners, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp or Sinopec advanced 0.8% and index heavyweight PetroChina edged up 0.1%.
Banks and securities firms closed mixed. Haitong Securities slipped 0.2%, while CITIC Securities climbed 0.6%. China Merchants Bank gained 0.9%, but Bank of China fell 0.7%.
Elsewhere:
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 2% to 5,105.30.
South Korea's Kospi advanced 2% to 1,591.76.
New Zealand's NZX 50 index added 1.8% to 3,201.65.
Taiwan's Taiex closed up 3.5% at 7,309.
Singapore's STI closed up 3.1% at 2,978.
Malaysia's KLCI closed up 2.7% at 1,139.
Indonesia's Jakarta Composite index closed up 0.6% at 2,225.
India's Sensex closed up 5.9% at 14,942.
with files from other wire services
