Asian markets ended mostly higher Thursday as upbeat economic data from China, Japan and Australia as well as gains in commodity prices helped investors overlook losses on Wall Street and the euro zone's fiscal troubles.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 regained 103.52 points, or 1.1%, to 9,542.65
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index inched ahead 11.46 points, or 0.1%, to 19,632.70
Thursday's gains in Tokyo followed revised growth in gross domestic product that came in at a faster-than-expected rate of 1.2% in the first quarter over the year-earlier period.
Machinery stocks performed especially well after data released late Wednesday showed core machinery orders for April increased 4% over the previous month, beating expectations.
Shares of Fanuc surged 6.2% and Makita Corp. advanced 1.7%, while Tokyo Electron climbed 2.5%.
Shares of pharmaceuticals, an industry considered a safe haven for investors fretting over the impact of a strong Japanese yen on exporters, also contributed to the gains, with Astellas Pharma climbing 1% and Eisai Co. gaining 0.7%.
However, Mitsui & Co. shares tumbled 5.8% on concerns about the earnings impact from BP's troubled oil-drilling operations, in which the Japanese trading company has a 10% stake.
The stock was hit as BP's American Depository Receipts fell 16% on Wednesday, after the U.S. government's point man for the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill sharply criticized the company in a letter released Wednesday, saying BP was taking too long to process compensation claims.
In Australia, stocks advanced after stronger-than-expected data on job creation bolstered confidence. The May data showed 5.2% of eligible Australians out of work, a relatively meager figure by global standards and below an expected 5.4% rate.
Shares of BHP Billiton climbed 1.4% and Rio Tinto rose 2.2%, while Woodside Petroleum rose 2.2%
Overnight gains for crude-oil prices also helped energy producers in the region, with Cnooc Ltd. rising 2.6% in Hong Kong, and Inpex Corp. surging 3.9% in Tokyo.
In Seoul, stocks were supported by gains in technology and automakers, though banks traded down, tracking their U.S. peers and largely ignoring the Bank of Korea's widely expected move to keep interest rates steady.
Bank of Korea Governor Kim Choong-soo said that while the euro-zone crisis poses downside risks to the country's economy, it would only have a limited impact on domestic growth.
Samsung Electronics rose 0.4% and Hynix Semiconductor rose 2.6%, while among financials, KB Financial slipped 0.2%.
A bigger decliner, shares of Woori Finance Holdings dropped 3.6%. South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service said it's investigating one of its units, Kyongnam Bank, after the discovery of improper issuance of loan-payment guarantee certificates. Woori Finance said it doesn't yet know the financial scale of the case.
In foreign-exchange markets, the euro reversed early declines against the U.S. dollar and the yen. Traders said the euro was riding the coattails of gains in the Australian dollar after that country's better-than-expected employment data for May.
Some caution persisted ahead of policy decisions from the European Central Bank and the Bank of England later Thursday, however.
The euro was at $1.2026 compared with $1.1988 U.S. in late New York trading Wednesday, and stood at 109.36 yen from 109.28 yen. The dollar was at 90.94 yen, compared with 91.15 yen.
CHINA
Chinese stocks declined, however, with shares of real-estate developers taking a hit as continued increases in property prices sparked worries that Beijing might be forced to implement more restrictive policies.
Shanghai’s CSI 300 gave back 32.11 points, or 1.2%, to 2,779.58
Chinese shares lost ground despite data that the country's exports surged 48.5% in May from a year earlier, boosting the monthly trade surplus to $19.5 billion U.S., as investors focused on a separate data release about property prices. The figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that property prices in China's biggest cities rose for a 12th straight month in May, climbing 12.4% on a year-on-year basis.
Among developers, shares of China Vanke shed 2.1% in Shenzhen, Gemdale Corp. dropped 3.3% in Shanghai and China Overseas Land & Investment declined 0.7% in Hong Kong.
Banking shares traded on the mainland also came off on concerns that tightening may affect loan-book quality and on profit-taking after sharp gains Wednesday afternoon. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China fell 1.4% and Bank of Nanjing Co. lost 4.1%.
Elsewhere;
Singapore’s Straits Times Index moved 33.78 points, or 1.2%, higher to 2,745.80
Korea’s Kospi index put on 4.48 points, or 0.3%, to 1,651.70
Taiwan’s Taiex index added 110.10 points, or 1.6%, to 7,181.77
New Zealand’s NZX index edged up 2.22 points, or 0.1%, to 3,002.33
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 50 points, or 1.1%, to 4,435.30
