Asian markets shot higher Wednesday as resource and tech stocks climbed on buoyant commodity prices and a strong close on Wall Street.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 Index advanced 33.24 points, or 0.3%, to 10,404.33
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index leaped 449.90 points, or 2.2%, to 20,722.08.
Material stocks lifted several regional markets after metals and crude-oil prices rose Tuesday. BHP Billiton rose 2.6% and Newcrest Mining added 2.3% in Sydney, Japan Petroleum Exploration gained 1.6% in Tokyo, Jiangxi Copper surged 6% in Shanghai and rose 2.8% in Hong Kong.
Cnooc shot up 9.4% to boost the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong after the energy producer announced an aggressive target of 22% to 27% growth in 2010 production.
News Corp., which owns The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires and MarketWatch, soared 5.4% in Sydney after stronger-than-expected second-quarter results and improved guidance for the full year. News Corp. said it now expects its full-year operating profit to rise by a percentage in the low 20s, after previously saying it expected high-single-digit to low-double-digit growth.
Ranking among decliners, ROC Oil plunged 30.7% after saying it expects the proved and probable reserves at its Basker-Manta-Gummy joint venture to fall to between three million and five million barrels from a prior forecast of 18 million barrels. Project partner Beach Energy was down 6.5%.
Technology shares largely bounced after a streak of weakness recently, encouraged by overnight advances on the Nasdaq. In Seoul, Samsung Electronics climbed 2.3% amid hopes of a boost to sales around the coming Lunar New Year.
In Taipei, MediaTek added 2.2% and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing advanced 1.4%, while United Microelectronics Corp. climbed 6.7%, on news the company sought to buy back 300 million shares.
In Tokyo, Toyota Motor slumped 5.7% on news its sales in the U.S. dropped 16% year-to-year in January, as the company continued to grapple with vehicle recalls.
Fast Retailing fell 3.1% after the company late Tuesday said same-store sales at its domestic Uniqlo casual clothing store chain in January declined 7.2% from a year earlier, marking its first monthly decline in six months.
On the data front, Australia's December trade deficit widened to 2.25 billion Australian dollars ($2 billion U.S.) in December 2009 from A$1.73 billion in November, but robust imports growth from strong domestic demand and a surge in exports due to the better global outlook pointed to sustained growth for the economy over the last quarter.
Economists said the import numbers illustrate solid growth in domestic demand and were likely to add to the case for the Reserve Bank of Australia to resume its tightening policy. The RBA surprised markets Tuesday when it left rates steady at 3.75%, belying expectations of an increase.
In the foreign exchange markets, gains in equities helped risk appetite, though investors remained cautious ahead of rate decisions from the European Central Bank and the Bank of England this week, as well as Friday's U.S. jobs report.
CHINA
Chinese banking stocks advanced despite a Fitch Ratings downgrade of China Merchants Bank and China Citic Bank the previous day due to a deterioration in their capital levels after last year's rapid loan growth. The stocks added 3.9% and 2.8% in Hong Kong, respectively, in addition to rising 2.3% and 4% in Shanghai.
The Shanghai 300 Composite Index regained 84.53 points, or 2.7%, to 3,230.72
Elsewhere:
Korea’s Kospi Index was 19.21 points, or 1.2%, higher to 1,615.02
Taiwan’s Taiex index picked up 118.37 points, or 1.6%, to 7,547.98
Singapore’s Straits Times index sprung back up by 43.97 points, or 1.6%, to 2,764.84
New Zealand’s NZX Index lost 12.25 points, or 0.4%, to 3,135.11
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 42.60 points, or 0.9%, to 4,647.90.
