Asian stock markets ended mostly higher Wednesday, paced by mining and metals stocks such as BHP Billiton and Posco on persistent hopes of an economic recovery.
The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo gained another 71.14 points, or 0.7%, to 9,723.16
Wednesday's advances followed another day of gains on Wall Street after a better-than-expected set of corporate earnings.
In Tokyo, Toshiba gained 5% on high volume, encouraged by Apple's strong third-quarter earnings. As a supplier of NAND chips for Apple, Toshiba's NAND business is expected to see a recovery on strong iPhone sales, traders said. But some exporters were weak on profit-taking as the U.S. dollar weakened against the yen. Tokyo Electron was off 2%, and Canon lost 1.6%, while Sony Corp. slid 0.9%.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index plunged 253.56 points, or 1.3%, to close at 19,248.17. In Hong Kong, Sinopec and PetroChina rose 3.8% and 0.1%, respectively, but the benchmark Hang Seng Index still declined on profit-taking after a string of recent advances.
In Sydney, shares of BHP Billiton rose 2% after the miner reported higher metallurgical coal and petroleum output. Rio Tinto "was always going to have the kick in the iron ore volumes and BHP wasn't going to be able to match that, but on the flip side BHP has had a nice kick in the met coal volumes and the petroleum figures look great," said Macquarie Research analyst Brendan Harris. Rio ended up 1.6%.
Newcrest Mining, though, lost 1.8% as Australia's largest gold producer said output during the fourth quarter ended June 30 totaled 397,826 troy ounces, down 9% from the same period a year earlier.
Major banks were broadly lower, with Commonwealth Bank of Australia down 1.6% and Westpac Banking off 2.4% after National Australia Bank suspended trade in its stock to raise fresh capital to bolster its balance sheet.
In Seoul, Posco rose 2.6% on news it was raising steel production by 6.4% this year. But tech stocks were lower, with Samsung Electronics down 0.6% and LG Electronics losing 1.1%.
Taiwan shares were being led higher by financial stocks. "Investors are buying bank stocks before [Taiwan and China] sign a memorandum of understanding," said Andrew Teng at Taiwan International Securities. Fubon Financial Holding was up 3.7% and Sinopac Financial Holdings up 2.2%.
CHINA
Chinese stocks ended at a fresh 13-month high as refiners such as Sinopec surged on expectations of strong quarterly results. Gains in most other markets were muted, as investors took a breather after solid recent rallies.
Shanghai’s 300 Composite Index gained back 67.09 points, or 1.9%, to 3,539.83. Shares of Sinopec , formally known as China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., surged 10%, while PetroChina jumped 5.3%.
Solar energy firms were up in China after Beijing said Tuesday it would subsidize pilot solar utility projects during the next two-three years that generated at least 500 megawatts. Shenzhen Topraysolar was up 2.4% in Shenzhen and Baoding Tianwei Baobian Electric gained 2.1% in Shanghai.
Hopes that Beijing would continue with policies aimed at supporting an economic recovery were in play. In a report, HSBC analysts cited Fan Jianping, chief economist and head of economic forecasting at State Information Center, as saying that the country's "active fiscal policy and appropriately loose monetary policy should remain in place, though some fine-tuning is needed."
Elsewhere:
Singapore’s Straits Times Index stepped back 3.50 points, or 0.1%, to 2,450.83
South Korea’s Kospi index advanced 5.05 points, or 0.3%, to 1,494.04
Taiwan’s Taiex kept its winning streak alive, gaining 31.98 points, or 0.5%, to 6,985.32
New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index picked up 27.25 points, or 1%, to 2,900.44
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 tacked on 17.80 points, or 0.4% to 4,068.50
