ASIAN stocks advanced yesterday, led by financial and technology companies, after China Merchants Bank Co forecast higher profits and Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average rebounded from its longest losing streak since 1954.
China Merchants, the nation's most profitable bank, rallied the most in three months. Trend Micro Inc, a Japanese anti-virus software developer, and Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd, Hong Kong's largest property company, jumped on brokerage upgrades. Mizuho Financial Group Inc and Mitsubishi Estate Co led gains in Japan.
"Chinese banks will have assured earnings growth for the first half and the third quarter," Mona Chung, a Hong Kong-based fund manager at Daiwa Asset Management Ltd, which oversees more than US$2 billion, told Bloomberg News. "Property stocks were oversold and their valuation has now come to a more reasonable level."
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index gained 0.4 percent to 133.3 at 7:18pm Tokyo time, after earlier dipping 0.6 percent. Financial companies were the biggest contributors to the benchmark's advance.
MSCI's Asian Index has lost 16 percent this year, following its worst first-half slump since 1992.
Nikkei gains
Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.9 percent to 13,360.04, halting a 12-day, 8.4-percent slump that was the longest retreat since 1954, when the end of the Korean War caused a decrease in Japanese industrial sales to the United States military. China's CSI 300 Index jumped 5.1 percent, its largest gain in three weeks.
Mizuho, Japan's third-largest publicly traded bank, jumped 6 percent to 512,000 yen (US$4,757). Mitsubishi Estate, the nation's No. 1 developer by market value, added 2.7 percent to 2,440 yen. Sumitomo Realty & Development Co, the third-largest developer, surged 4.8 percent to 2,175 yen.
Trend Micro gained 3.2 percent to 3,600 yen after Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co raised its rating on the shares to "strong outperform," citing recent share price falls and the prospect earnings will beat expectations in the second quarter.
Minara Resources Ltd slumped 16 percent to A$2.51 (US$2.39) in Sydney as Macquarie Group Ltd downgraded shares of Australia's No. 2 nickel producer to "underperform."