Asian shares up on bargain buying, China data

HONG KONG: Asian stock markets rose Tuesday thanks to bargain-hunting and a positive lead from Wall Street, while regional sentiment was also lifted by better-than-expected preliminary Chinese manufacturing data.

However investors remain nervous about the state of the global economy, pushing gold prices to a record above $1,900 an ounce.

Tokyo jumped 1.22 percent, or 104.88 points, to 8,733.01. Seoul shot up 3.86 percent, or 65.98 points, to end at 1,776.68 and Sydney added 2.23 percent, or 91.1 points, to 4,173.4.

Shanghai jumped 1.52 percent, or 38.16 points, to 2,554.02 and Hong Kong rose 1.99 percent, or 388.66 points, to 19,875.53.

Mumbai rose 0.96 percent , or 156.77 points, to 16,498.47.

Markets in Europe and Wall Street ended in the green. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.34 percent, the S&P 500 edged up 0.03 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.15 percent.

The gains followed three successive days of losses in Asia, which have been caused by worries that growth in the United States' economy is faltering and the eurozone debt crisis will spread.

Market watchers are looking ahead to later in the week, when US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke is due to deliver a key speech, with many looking for clues as to how he plans to boost the flat-lining US economy.

Expectations are rising that he will announce additional measures to stimulate the economy although it is not clear if these would include a third full-fledged bond-buying programme, known as quantitative easing.

In Tokyo exporters were higher as the yen retreated after hitting a record post-war high 75.95 against the dollar last week.

Against the Japanese currency, the dollar was flat at 76.78. The euro fetched 110.89 yen from 110.19.

The dollar rose to $1.4471 against the euro in Tokyo afternoon trade compared with $1.4356 at 2100 GMT on Monday as risk appetite improved.

In China HSBC's preliminary Purchasing Manager's Index hit 49.8 in August from a final reading of 49.3 in July, indicating that while there was still a slowdown in the economy, it was easing.

A figure above 50 shows growth and anything below 50 is a contraction.

HSBC Chief Economist for China Hongbin Qu said in a statement that the data suggested the risk of a hard landing for China was "still remote".

"This provides leeway for the People's Bank of China to keep the current tightening measures in place," he added.

The report also gave support to the commodities-dependent Australian dollar, which fetched US$1.0452 from $1.0407 earlier.

News from Tripoli that rebels were close to bringing down the 42-year reign of Kadhafi raised the likelihood of a better oil supply, which weighed on the Brent contract in early trade.

But prices jumped in later trade amid claims by Kadhafi's son that his father was still in control of the capital, as well as expectations that output will not return to pre-revolt levels.

Brent North Sea crude for October delivery rose 39 cents to $108.75 a barrel from Monday's close of $108.36.

New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light sweet crude for October delivery rose 64 cents to $85.06.

Gold soared in Hong Kong to a record high $1,914.50-$1,915.50 an ounce as traders still worried about the global outlook looked for a safe haven to park their cash.

However, the precious metal eased on profit-taking to close at $1,875.00-$1,876.00.

In other markets:

-- Singapore closed 1.22 percent, or 33.32 points higher at 2,765.15.

Singapore Airlines advanced 3.05 percent to Sg$10.82 and DBS Group Holdings added 0.52 percent to Sg$13.43.

-- Taipei ended the day 3.25 percent, or 237.64 points, higher at 7,550.23.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co gained 2.77 percent to Tw$66.8 while leading smartphone maker HTC surged 5.79 percent to Tw$749.0.

-- Manila closed 1.96 percent, or 84.28 points, higher at 4,375.39.

Lepanto Consolidated Mining soared 7.3 percent to 1.77 pesos, Philippine Long Distance Telephone jumped 3.9 percent to 2,430 pesos and Manila Mining climbed 8.7 percent to 0.075 pesos.

-- Wellington dipped 0.15 percent, or 4.85 points, to 3,269.59.

Fletcher Building ended up 0.7 percent at NZ$7.79 and New Zealand Refining soared 6.3 percent at NZ$3.40 but Telecom fell 1.8 percent to NZ$2.69.

-- Jakarta rose 1.06 percent, or 40.84 points, to 3,880.46.

Food producer Indofood jumped 4.7 percent to 6,750 rupiah, while coal producer Harum Energy rose 4.6 percent to 7.950 rupiah.

-- Kuala Lumpur ended up 0.69 percent, or 10.21 points, at 1,482.37.

Palm oil producer IOI Corp. gained 4.3 percent to 4.64 ringgit, while shipping company MISC Bhd increased 3.0 percent to 1.38 ringgit. Utility firm Tenaga Nasional lost 1.1 percent to 5.43.

-- Bangkok fell 0.99 percent or 10.56 points to 1,057.28.

Banpu lost 3.2 percent to 612.00, while PTT added 0.3 percent to 316.00.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011