Asian markets stretched their winning streak Thursday, with financials again leading as investors chose to look at the bright side of economic and earnings data while they await results of the "stress tests" on U.S. banks.
Japanese shares surged, catching up as trading resumed for the first time this week after the Golden Week holidays. Hong Kong, Taiwanese and Chinese shares notched gains for a sixth straight session.
The Nikkei 225 Average jumped 408.33 points, or 4.6%, to end at 9,385.70, its highest finish since early November.
The Hang Seng Index gained 383.32 points, or 2.3% in Hong Kong, to 17,217.89.
Stronger appetite for risk curbed the Japanese yen, which is viewed as a safe haven, while the Australian dollar was helped by surprisingly resilient jobs data in that country.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group soared 15.8% after Japan's largest bank said at the end of trading Friday that it expects a net loss of 260 billion yen ($2.65 billion U.S.) for the last fiscal year, ended March 31.
While this compares to a previous estimate for 50 billion yen in net profit, the forecast loss was smaller than some analysts had expected.
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group climbed 12.3% after it announced Friday the acquisition of Citigroup's Japanese securities business in a 774.5-billion-yen deal. Sompo Japan Insurance gained 15.7% on pre-weekend news that it was considering raising 100 billion yen through subordinated bonds, which aren't dilutive to equity shareholdings.
In Seoul, Korea Exchange Bank jumped 11.2% after local media reported that the state-run Korea Development Bank was interested in acquiring the company to boost its retail-banking presence.
Woori Finance Holdings inched up 0.5% after it swung to black with a net profit of 162.3 billion won ($129 million U.S.) for the quarter ended March 31. The profit was down 70% from a year earlier, but an improvement on the net loss of 664.8 billion in the previous quarter.
The U.S. bank may sell as much as 13.4 billion shares, or about a third of its total shareholding in CCB, according to the reports.
Among other notable gainers in the financial sector, Westpac Banking Corp. rose 1.8% in Sydney, HSBC Holdings added 5.6% in Hong Kong, United Overseas Bank jumped 3.5% late in Singapore.
In Tokyo, Nintendo shares ended 1% higher after the company posted bigger-than-expected 8.5% growth in profit for the year ended March 31 and predicted 7.5% growth in profit during the current financial year.
Higher metal and crude oil prices aided commodity stocks, with BHP Billiton up 5.3% and Alumina up 8.2%.
In South Korea, Posco rose 3.9% in Hong Kong and 1.1% in Shanghai after saying Wednesday it won't issue any new shares to pay for its production and investment activities this year, and will instead seek to raise most of the funding it needs through a bond sale. The company plans to seek permission from shareholders to move ahead with a 100-billion-yuan ($14.6-billion U.S.) bond sale.
Shares of Mitsui & Co. ended up 4.9%, although the commodities trading house reported a 57% tumble in profit for the year ended March 31 on weaker demand and prices, and forecast a further decline during the current financial year.
Shares of News Corp publisher of The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires and MarketWatch - rose 9.6% in Sydney after the company kept its forecast for fiscal 2009 operating earnings and as Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch declared "the worst is over" for the economy.
In currency markets, the euro was buying $1.3271 U.S. compared with $1.3335 U.S. late in New York, ahead of the European Central Bank's decision on interest rates. It was also buying Y131.34 from Y131.01. The U.S. dollar was changing hands for Y98.93 compared with Y98.28.
CHINA
China steel and non-ferrous metal stocks gained after Beijing said it would allocate 20 billion yuan ($2.9 billion U.S.) to upgrade technology for companies in the steel, nonferrous metal, petrochemical and textile industries. Baoshan Iron & Steel added 0.5% and Jiangxi Copper gained 1.2%.
China Construction Bank shares rose 5.1% in Hong Kong and 2% in Shanghai on reports that China Investment Corp. has agreed to buy most of the shares that Bank of America plans to sell, alleviating concerns that a market sale of a part of its stake by the U.S. lender could hurt CCB's stock price
Elsewhere:
China’s Shanghai 300 Composite Index gained 2.10 points, or 0.1%, to 2,767.08
Singapore’s Straits Times Index climbed 62.57 points, or 2.9% to 2,241.60
South Korea’s Kospi index eased back 7.63 points, or 0.6% to 1,401.08
Taiwan’s Taiex index inched ahead 6.17 points, or 0.1% to 6,572.87
New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index advanced 23.51 points, or 0.8%, to end at 2,854.87.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 picked up 71.60 points, or 1.9% to 3,938.70
