Asian stocks rose Wednesday, although sharp early gains eased, with Japan's Nikkei ending higher as investors snapped up banks such as Mitsubishi UFJ following the Federal Reserve's move to add liquidity to financial markets.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index closed 1.6% higher at 12,861.13 after rising as much as 3.2%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index pared gains to close 1.9% higher at 23,422.76.
In Tokyo, shares of Mitsubishi UFJ climbed 4.7% while Mizuho Financial Group was up 4%.
Shares of NEC Electronics climbed 2.4% after the electronics giant said Tuesday more than 600 employees had agreed to accept early retirement, amounting to annual savings of about 5 billion yen ($49 million).
KDDI Corp. shares were up 3.7% following a Nikkei business daily report that the telecom group plans to invest 30 billion yen to build or expand data centers in the U.K., France and Singapore by 2010 to nurture its business of providing maintenance for corporate information systems.
On the data front, Japan's economy grew more slowly in the October-to-December period than originally estimated. The government reported that it had revised its assessment of GDP growth to an annualized 3.5% during the quarter from a preliminary estimate of 3.7%. Much of the revision came from weaker capital spending, which was revised to 2% growth on quarter from a preliminary estimate of a 2.9% increase.
Japanese corporate-goods prices posted a stronger-than-expected 3.4% rise in February from a year earlier, accelerating from a 3% gain in January, government data showed
Chinese stocks fell to their lowest level in more than seven months, reversing early gains as renewed worries over moves to combat inflation overshadowed Wall Street's overnight rally. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 2.3%, or 95.76 points, to close at 4,070.12, after opening 2.1% higher.
Elsewhere:
Singapore's Straits Times Index added 2.3%.
Taiwan's Weighted Price index was up 0.6%.
South Korea's Kospi added 1.1%.
Malaysia's KLSE composite was up 2.2%.
Thailand's SET added 1%.
Indonesia's Composite climbed 1.3%.
New Zealand's NZX-50 added 0.7%.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 closed 2.4% higher, gaining 123 points to 5,257.90. It, too, had risen more than 3% in the early hours.
with files from other wire services
