Market Update
Asian markets ended higher Friday after robust gains on Wall Street overnight boosted investor confidence.
The Nikkei rallied 2.2%. Mainland Chinese markets opened for the first time this week following the Lunar New Year Holidays that began last Friday. The Shanghai Composite was initially down 0.2% as investors got their first chance to react to disappointing Chinese manufacturing data released during the 7-day long break. The index, however, recovered from the day's lows and ended 0.6% higher.
The Hang Seng added 1%while the All Ordinaries climbed 0.7%, extending yesterday's gains. The Sensex inched up 0.3%.
Sentiment was lifted after U.S. stocks posted their best performance so far this year on the back of upbeat initial claims data and some strong corporate earnings.
In regional news, Australia's central bank said inflation would likely breach its target range by mid-year, highlighting the dilemma facing policymakers to curb rising prices while spurring a still-weak economy.
Meanwhile in China, official records said the country posted a current account surplus in the fourth quarter. China's current account came in at a surplus of $49.8 billion in the September-December period.
Also, a survey report by HSBC said China's services purchasing managers index declined to 50.7 in January from 50.9 in December.
Stocks on the Move
Tokyo-listed exporters marched up as concerns related to U.S. economic growth cooled off after well-received claims data.
Among the pacers, chipmakers Sumco Corp. and Advantest Corp. advanced over 4% each.
Renesas Electronics Corp. jumped 4.7% after posting quarterly results; the company said it expects narrower net loss for the fiscal year ending March 31.
Sony Corp. improved 4.1% after announcing job layoffs while Sharp Corp. also added 2.6%. Auto firms Honda and Nissan were up 2.9% and 2.2% each, respectively.
Shipping companies, power plays and retailers were among other top picks. Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha rose 4% while Mitsui O.S.K Lines was up 4.4%.
Tokyo Electric Power surged 11.1% while Kyushu Electric Power grew 7.8% stronger. Home appliances retailer Yamada Denki was up 3.8%.
In Hong Kong, airline stocks were flying high after the Chinese civil aviation authority released a notice to cancel limits on the lowest air fare, lending airlines more room to offer discounts.
China Eastern Airlines bounced 5.7% while Air China rose 3.3%. Cathay Pacific Airways was up a modest 1.2%.
Port operators were also modestly higher -- China Merchants Holdings added 4.8% while Cosco Pacific gained 3.7%.
China Telecom pared gains but still ended up 0.3% following a ratings upgrade. China Unicom climbed 2.9%.
Energy firms and casino stocks were among other stocks on the buyers' radar.
In Sydney, Aurora Oil & Gas shot up more than 56% after Canada's Baytex Energy Corp. agreed to take over the company for $1.84 billion.
Billabong International Ltd soared 13.2% after the surf-wear retailer said it was considering a sale of its two e-commerce businesses.
News Corp. bounced 8.2% despite reporting sharply lower quarterly net income, as the results were still better than street estimates.
Miners and banking firms lent support to the resource-heavy benchmark index.
In Mumbai, stocks edged up in lockstep with overseas bourses. The top gainers included Tata Steel, up 6.4%, followed by SSLT, up 3.7%, and Sun Pharma, up 2.8%.
Axis Bank rose 2.1% while Bajaj Auto was up 2%.
Cipla, NTPC, Maruti Suzuki, SBI, Dr Reddy's, Hero MotoCorp, and Coal India were all up in a range between 1% and 1.7%.