Asian markets closed higher Thursday, as U.S. plans to help troubled banks boosted financial shares and a weaker yen aided Japanese exporters.
Hong Kong shares rose strongly on the first trading day after the extended Lunar New Year break. And New Zealand shares got a mild boost after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut its benchmark interest rate by a larger-than-expected 1.5 percentage points, bringing the official cash rate -once among the highest benchmark rates in the industrialized world - to 3.5%.
Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average ended 1.8% higher, rising 144.95 points to 8,251.24 and bringing its three-day advance to 7.4%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index surged 5.5% or 575 points to 13,154.43. Shares were bid sharply higher from the open, trading for the first time since Friday and reacting to some upbeat announcements, such as from Barclays Bank that it doesn't need to raise more capital, during the holiday break.
Shares of HSBC jumped 9%.
In Japan, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, the country's second-biggest bank by assets, was up 13.4%.
Gainers in the financial sector also included Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group , shares of which were up 4.8%, while those of Mizuho Financial Group were 5.2% higher. Sony Corp. was up 4% helped by the dollar's recent gains against the yen. Sony reported Thursday that third-quarter net income fell 95% and the company forecast its first full-fiscal-year loss in 14 years.
In South Korea, Samsung Electronics rose 2.1% and Shinhan Financial was up 3.3 %.
In Australia, Rio Tinto was down 0.6% on concerns about the possibility of a heavily-discounted rights issue. National Australia Bank was up 3.7%.
Elsewhere:
Markets in China and Taiwan remain closed for the Lunar New Year.
Korea’s Kospi Index were up 8.58 points or 0.7% to 1,166.56
Singapore’s Straits Times Index were down by 0.64 points, or 0.04%, to 1, 766.72
In Australia, the All Ordinaries 200 Index gained 64.9 points, or 0.9%, to 3,526.20
New Zealand shares were up 22.22 points, or 0.8 %, to 2,770.12
