By Adam Haigh - Sep 27, 2012 7:01 AM GMT+0400
Asian stocks rose as a drop in
Chinese industrial profits increased pressure on Premier Wen
Jiabao to step up measures to support growth in the world’s
second-largest economy.
China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd. (688), the country’s
biggest developer by market value listed in Hong Kong, rose 1
percent. Komatsu Ltd., a maker of construction equipment that
gets about 15 percent of its sales in China, gained 1.7 percent
in Tokyo. Renesas Electronics Corp. (6723) advanced 1.3 percent after
Kyodo reported a government-backed counter offer for the
Japanese chipmaker may be double a bid by KKR & Co. Nitori
Holdings Co. (9843) fell 8.5 percent in Tokyo after the furniture
retailer reported profit that missed analyst estimates.
A Renesas Electronics Corp. central processing unit (CPU) board. Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 0.4 percent to 121.98 as
of 11:59 a.m. in Tokyo, reversing an earlier 0.2 percent
decline. The gauge climbed 3.7 percent this quarter through
yesterday as central banks in Europe, the U.S., Japan and China
took action to stimulate economic growth.
“The positive would be a big China stimulus package that
could send markets higher,” said Andrew Pease, Sydney-based
chief investment strategist at Russell Investment Group, which
manages about $150 billion. “The signals are that they are not
really itching to do that. There’s some evidence in the data
that we’ll start to see stabilization in economic growth by the
end of this year. The risk would be that the Chinese data
continues to weaken into the end of the year and the first
quarter of 2013.”
Industrial Profits
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.5 percent and China’s
Shanghai Composite rose 0.2 percent as the National Bureau of
Statistics said today in Beijing that Chinese industrial
companies’ profits dropped for a fifth month in August. Today’s
report may increase pressure on Wen Jiabao to step up easing
measures as risks grow that annual expansion will be the weakest
in 22 years.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average and Australia’s S&P/ASX
200 Index were little changed. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.2
percent. Singapore’s Straits Times rose 0.5 percent and Taiwan’s
Taiex increased 0.2 percent.
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced 0.4
percent today. The U.S. gauge dropped 0.6 percent yesterday, for
its longest retreat since July, amid concern that Europe’s debt
crisis is worsening and global growth is slowing.
Stocks earlier declined as data from the U.S. to Italy
added to concern that global economic growth is waning and
Spanish borrowing costs soared amid violent protests against
austerity measures.
The MSCI Asia Pacific (MXAP) Index climbed 6.8 percent this year
through yesterday compared with a 14 percent gain on the S&P 500
Index and an 11 percent jump on the Stoxx Europe 600 Index. The
Asian benchmark traded at 12.7 times estimated earnings compared
with 13.9 for the S&P 500 and 12 for the Stoxx Europe 600.
To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Haigh in Sydney at ahaigh1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John McCluskey at j.mccluskey@bloomberg.net
