Asian stocks rose on Thursday, bolstered by positive Chinese trade data and upbeat comments from Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen about the U.S. economic outlook.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index gained back 130.33 points, or 0.9%, to 14,103.78.
The yen rose against the U.S. dollar, trading at ¥101.819, from ¥101.884 on Wednesday.
The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong recovered 90.86, or 0.4%, to 21,837.12
In Japan, some of the market movers included Shikoku Electric Power Company, up 4.5%, Hokkaido Electric Power Company, up 3.8%, Sharp Corp., up 1.6%, Olympus Corp., up 1.3%, and Hitachi, up 0.8%.
Shares of Toyota Motor Corp. moved up 0.3% at the close, after which the auto maker announced record operating profit in the business year ended March 31.
In Hong Kong, telecom company China Telecom rallied 5.3%, bigger rival China Mobile advanced 3.4%, China Unicom (Hong Kong) shot up 3.1%, and Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearings gained 1.7%.
However, casinos were weak after reports that the Macau government is planning to shorten the stay of mainland visitors starting in July, and that China is clamping down on illegal use of bank cards within Macau’s casinos.
Both MGM China Holdings and Wynn Macau sank more than 8%. Galaxy Entertainment Group slid 7.6%, Melco Crown Entertainment tumbled 6.9%, and SJM Holdings declined 6.6%.
CHINA
China on Thursday posted unexpected gains in both exports and imports for April, beating market estimates and adding up to a trade surplus of $18.5 billion U.S.
Shanghai’s CSI 300 Composite dropped 1.82 points, or 0.1%, to 2,135.50
China’s exports unexpectedly rose 0.9% in April from a year earlier, swinging from a 6.6% fall in the previous month, Chinese customs statistics showed Thursday.
A poll of economists by Reuters had projected the exports to fall 1.7%.
Imports gained 0.8% from a year ago, after a 11.3% plunge in March. This too beat the Reuters forecast for a 2.3% drop.
The trade surplus widened to $18.5 billion U.S. for the month, up from $7.7 billion U.S. in March.
Meanwhile, a number of economists are saying that the skewing from phony invoices last year mean that export growth was actually much, much higher.
This in turn, raises the odds the yuan could move higher, as the People’s Bank of China may feel the solid trade gains and the bottoming of the manufacturing sector gives it the leeway to push the currency back up.
In other markets;
Taiwan’s Taiex Index strengthened 37.68 points, or 0.4%, to 8,930.90
Korea’s Kospi index gained 10.72 points, or 0.6%, to 1,950.60
The Singapore Straits Times Index regained 11.26 points, or 0.4%, to 3,247.69
New Zealand NZX 50 index dipped 27.72 points, or 0.5%, to 5,161.41
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 41 points, or 0.8%, to 5,476.77
