Market Update
Stocks in Asia ended higher after Japanese shares soared after investors picked up equities on the hope the market may have over-reacted on the downside after the recent earthquake and the consequent tsunami and nuclear crisis.
At close, Japan's Nikkei surged 4.4% while China's Shanghai Composite, Hong Kong's Hang Seng, India's Sensex and Australia's ASX added 0.1% to 0.9%.
The Nikkei rose prompted by buying into many companies whose value corrected deeply after the March 11's earthquake and tsunami and that are now perceived to have lost lesser real value compared with the stock price correction. Authorities, in the meanwhile, continued to make headway in bringing under control radiation-emitting nuclear power plants damaged by the quake making the possibility of a nuclear catastrophe looked increasingly unlikely.
Sentiment over Japanese equities further got a boost after billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who is on an Asia trip, said the disaster would affect value in the short term but the economy would rebound in the long haul.
Stocks on the Move
Tokyo Electric Power Company, operator of the Fukushima power plants that have been at the centre of the nuclear crisis, climbed 15.8%, on news that workers have managed to restore power to the reactors in an effort to cool them down. The stock had lost as much as over 60% of its value in the days following the disaster.
In blue-chip stocks, Toyota, Sony and Hitachi surged 3.2% to 6.5%.
In Hong Kong and China, energy stocks boosted the index with PetroChina and CNOOC adding 2.8% and 3.1%, respectively.
Indian markets, which have under-performed most other global peers this year, joined the global rally, even as investors keenly watched the price of crude--India imports a majority of the oil it uses.
While in Sydney, Westpac Banking Corp edged up 0.6% while other banks gave up gains towards the end of trade.