Asian Stocks Edge to New Highs
1 hour, 29 minutes ago
By Neil Fullick
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asian stocks crept up to near four-year highs on Tuesday, helped by demand for technology firms, while the beleaguered U.S. dollar shuffled in tight trading ranges above multi-year lows.
Base metals, like copper and aluminum, were at their highest values in several years, reflecting global economic growth, while gold was flat.
But the region's financial markets were trading in small volumes in the absence of leads from U.S. markets, which were closed on Monday to mark Presidents Day.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index reached a fresh two-and-half-year high, with China plays in focus, before edging lower by mid-morning. Taiwan's TAIEX extended a 40-month high, led by plastics firms, and Seoul's Korea Composite Stock Price Index traded at its highest level since May 2002 as investors focused on exporters.
MSCI's broadest index of markets in Asia outside Japan rose as high as 241.05, marking its highest since April 2000.
The Nikkei average in Tokyo edged up 0.8 percent in morning dealings to 10,629.87, led by foreign buying of technology stocks such as Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news) (news - web sites).
The consumer electronics giant, which plans to increase the volume of digital camera sales by as much as 50 percent in the next fiscal year, rose two percent to 4,400 yen.
"Foreign investors were seen hunting for high-techs and auto issues that look cheap," said Koichi Seki, equity manager at Chuo Securities. "But they are less interested in those dependent on domestic demand, although such issues had risen recently prior to the GDP (news - web sites) data."
Japan is due to release fourth-quarter gross domestic product data on Wednesday, which is expected to show the world's second-biggest economy expanded at a greater pace than the world's biggest economy, the United States.
JAPAN GDP
Currency dealers say such a result could weaken the resolve of the Bank of Japan to intervene to bolster the dollar's value to help exporters.
"If it turns out that the Japanese economy is doing better, they would lose their justification for intervening," said Mitsuru Sahara, vice president of the foreign exchange dealing group at UFJ Bank.
At 9:26 p.m. EST Monday, the dollar was trading at 105.53 yen, above a 40-month low reached in January of 105.15 yen. Dealers fear Bank of Japan intervention at 105.
The euro was trading at $1.28, below a life high of 1.29 reached last month.
The dollar found little support on Monday from comments by European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, who said excessive foreign exchange volatility was undesirable. He avoided any signal on lowering interest rates.
The Australian dollar pushed toward a seven-year peak of 79.48 U.S. cents, reached on Friday, emboldened by central bank comments on interest rates.
Base metals traded around multi-year highs in Asia, extending a bull run built on surging demand from China's factories.
Copper, widely used in construction and wiring, rose as high as $2,750.50 a tonne, its highest since 1995. Aluminum nudged up to 1,730 a tonne, a four-year high.
Zinc, used to protect steel from corrosion, was trading around three-year peaks of $1,114 a tonne. Lead was at $865 a tonne, around seven-year peaks.
Australia's diversified miner BHP Billiton rose 0.8 percent to A$11.90 on the back of the base metals prices.
Spot gold was trading around $413 an ounce, the top end of its trading range for the day and up slightly from London.
U.S. light crude future were trading at $34.51 a barrel, flat from the last trading day on Friday, but underpinned by a pledge from oil cartel OPEC (news - web sites) to cut production.
On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.62 percent to 10,627.85 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index dropped one percent to 2,053.56. |
