Asian markets mostly advanced Monday, with Japanese indexes ending sharply higher as bargain buyers scooped up beaten-down stocks such as Nissan Motor Co., while Hong Kong and Mumbai shares looked well set in afternoon trading to snap out of a three-session losing streak.
The 225-issue Nikkei index closed up 311.77 points, or 3.6%, at 9,005.59 while
On the economic front, Japan's Cabinet Office said in a final report that the leading index fell to 89 in August from 91.4 in July. The August reading was revised from 89.3 reported initially. Meanwhile, the coincident economic index logged a reading of 100.6 in August, down from an initially estimated 100.7 and 103.5 seen in the previous month. At the same time, the lagging index came in at 100.5 versus 100.2 reported previously. The index was also down from previous month's 101.
Panasonic jumped 8.9% following a Nikkei report over the weekend that the electronics maker is now expected to report a group operating profit of around 220 billion yen to 250 billion yen for the fiscal first half ended September, topping its forecast of a 9% drop to 200 billion yen.
Nippon Steel and JFE Holdings also gained on the back of a Nikkei report that both the firms were expected to upgrade their group pretax profit estimates for this fiscal year ending March. Nippon Steel gained 4.4%, while JFE surged 9.2%.
Elpida Memory did not trade for the fourth straight session, ending ask-only and limit-down on falling DRAM memory prices and share glut fears over the company's plan to issue moving strike convertible bonds.
In the banking space, Mizuho Financial Group advanced 1.5%, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group gained 1.7%, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group jumped 5.3%. Among tech stocks, Advantest climbed 4.6%, Fanuc rose 0.8%, Kyocera moved up 4.7%, and Fujitsu added 4.4%.
Defensive stocks such as drugmakers continued to gain amid worries about the global economy. Takeda Pharmaceutical advanced 3.3% and Astellas Pharma surged 7.0%.
Among commodity-related stocks Mitsui & Co. jumped 5.8%, Mitsubishi Corp rose 4.3%, oil and gas miner Inpex Holdings gained 3.2%, and Nippon Oil soared 6.6%.
CHINA
The Chinese stock market closed higher, extending Friday's gains, on expectations that the government would take necessary measures to boost the economy as third-quarter economic data released today confirmed a slowdown. Property developers, banks and resources led the gainers. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed up 43.36 points or 2.25% at 1,974.01, after falling as low as 1,890.92 in morning trade.
Among a slew of economic data released today, China's GDP rose 9.9% on year in the nine months to September, and rose 9.0% on year in the third quarter. Growth slowed from 10.6% in the first quarter and 10.1% in the second. The National Bureau of Statistics also said that industrial value-added output rose 11.4% on year-over-year basis in September, slowing from the 12.8% increase in August. In September, China's consumer price index rose 4.6%, down from 4.9% in August, the bureau said.
In the property sector, China Vanke jumped 5.8% and Poly Real Estate Group surged 6.2%. Among banks, China Construction Bank advanced 1.4% after it reported a 48% increase in net profit for the first nine months in a preliminary earnings statement. China CITIC Bank gained 3.9% after the bank forecast a net profit growth of over 130% under Chinese accounting standards in the first nine months of the current year.
Among resources stocks, China Shenhua Energy climbed 6.1% and Jiangxi Copper rose 4.2%. China Petroleum & Chemical or Sinopec gained 2.7%, but index heavyweight PetroChina lost 1.9%.
Elsewhere in the financial sector, brokerage CITIC Securities jumped 9.7% and Haitong Securities surged by the 10% daily limit. Ping An Insurance closed up 2.1% despite forecasting a net loss in the first nine months of 2008 due to losses on its investment in Belgian-Dutch financial group Fortis.
Elsewhere:
Taiwan's Taiex closed up 1.9% at 4,931.
Malaysia's KLCI closed up 4.3 points at 909.
Singapore's STI closed up 3.2% at 1,939.
Indonesia's Jakarta Composite Index closed up 2.04% at 1,426.
India's Sensex finished up 2.5% at 10,223.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 jumped 4.3% to 4,142.30.
New Zealand's NZX 50 index gained 2.9% to 2,889.92.
with files from other wire services
