Most Asian markets advanced Wednesday after a roller-coaster ride, with Japanese shares jumping as the yen's recent weakness and overnight gains on Wall Street lifted exporters and financial shares on the first day of a new financial year.
Chip makers stood out in Taipei and Tokyo after Elpida Memory said it was selected to partner Taiwan Memory, a semiconductor company being formed by the government to rescue domestic memory chip makers.
But after March yielded strong gains for most Asian indexes, analysts said the rally was hard to sustain ahead of key events this month. The coming events include the G20 meeting in London and the start of the U.S. corporate earnings season later in the month.
Ignoring weaker-than-expected results from the Bank of Japan's quarterly tankan business sentiment survey, the Nikkei 225 Average jumped 242.38 points, or 3%, to 8351.91, after flirting with losses earlier in the day. The survey showed sentiment among big manufacturers slumped to the lowest level on record.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index trailed Tuesday’s close by 56.48 points, or 0.4%, at 13,519.48
Japan's Elpida Memory climbed 14.7% after being picked by Taiwan Memory as a partner to provide technology. Taiwan Memory is also holding talks with Micron Technology for cooperation. In Taipei, Nanya Technology rose 7%, ProMOS Technologies and Powerchip Semiconductor climbed 6.8% and Inotera Memories added 6.7%.
Financials and exporters also advanced in Tokyo, with Honda Motor rising 6.7% and Sony jumping 6.4%. Nomura Holdings gained 3.2% and Mitsubishi UFJ advanced 4%.
Car makers rose in South Korea with Hyundai Motor up 4.7% and Kia Motors 4.9% higher on hopes for potential expansion of market share in the U.S. during a period of restructuring for U.S. car makers.
China Unicom shares tumbled 8.1% in Hong Kong a day after it reported 2008 earnings. The company posted a lower-than-expected 58% increase in net profit, which was lifted mainly by a gain from the sale of its multiple-access business to China Telecom Corp. last year.
OZ Minerals ended down 3.6%, after falling nearly 20% earlier in the day, in spite of news it had struck a $1.2 billion deal to sell a suite of assets to Minmetals and that its lenders had agreed to extend refinancing of its debt to April 30.
The Australian Government last week blocked Minmetals' 2.6-billion-Australian-dollar ($1.8-billion U.S.) takeover offer for the miner on the grounds its Prominent Hill mine was in a military zone in South Australia state.
Fortescue Metals gained 1.2% after the government gave the green light to Hunan Valin Iron & Steel's A$1.2-billion investment in the iron ore miner.
Sentiment in New Zealand was crimped by Fletcher Building's plan to raise 505 million New Zealand dollars ($287.6 million U.S.) in capital, mainly through a placement.
Fletcher was on a trading halt, but Fisher & Paykel Appliances , which is yet to announce details of its planned capital raising, dropped 4.1%.
Elsewhere:
China’s Shanghai Composite Index gained 40.43 points, or 1.6%, Wednesday to 2,548.22.
Singapore’s Straits Times Index picked up 2.27 points, or 0.1% to 1,702.26
South Korea’s Kospi Composite Index advanced 27.10 points, or 2.3%, to 1,233.36
Taiwan’s Taiex Index added 103.61 points, or 2%, to 5,314.45
New Zealand’s NZX Index subtracted 21.15 points, or 0.8% to 2,569.24
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index retreated 2.40 or 0.1%, to end the day at 3,579.30
