By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch , Colin Ng and John Phillips
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Most Asian stocks advanced Wednesday on lower crude-oil prices and overnight Wall Street gains, with shares in Tokyo looking past a major earthquake off Japan’s northern coast and cheering upbeat machinery-orders data.
Airline stocks advanced on a pullback in crude-oil prices, with Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. soaring on the Hong Kong carrier’s 2010 results. Australian shares ended lower as weak commodity prices weighed down miners.
Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average (JP:NI225 10,590, +64.31, +0.61%) finished 0.6% higher, South Korea’s Kospi added 0.3%, China’s Shanghai Composite (CN:SHCOMP 3,002, +2.21, +0.07%) overcame early losses to end up 0.1% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (HK:HANGSENG 23,810, +98.41, +0.42%) rose 0.4%. Australia’s S&P/ASX (AU:XJO 4,768, -40.47, -0.84%) dropped 0.8%.
Tokyo stocks rose as investors shrugged off a 7.3-magnitude earthquake in Japan, as initial reports suggested that there was little damage to the rural, quake-prepared region.
Better-than-expected data also helped, with automation company Fanuc (FANUY 25.98, -0.12, -0.46%) (JP:6954 12,880, +70.00, +0.55%) rising 0.6% as January core machinery orders rose 4.2% month-on-month, outpacing December’s 1.7% rise.
“Today’s report, along with other recent indicators, suggests business spending should continue increasing moderately in the January to March quarter, though it’s still too early to say if it will accelerate,” said Norio Miyagawa, a senior economist at Mizuho Research and Consulting.
Shares of Vantec Corp. (JP:9382 146,400, +30,000, +25.77%) soared 25.8% on a Nikkei report that Hitachi Transport plans to buy a majority stake in the company.
Telecommunications major KDDI Corp. (JP:9433 555,000, +16,000, +2.97%) (KDDIY 65.64, +0.91, +1.41%) added 3% after announcing a capital and business tie-up with Space Shower Networks to expand its media-content business.
Toyota Motor Corp. (TM 89.99, +0.97, +1.09%) (JP:7203 3,715, +15.00, +0.41%) ended 0.4% higher, with investors focused on the company’s “global vision,” a longer-term business strategy that the auto maker planned to unveil Wednesday. According to a Nikkei report, Toyota aims to lift its group operating profit to more than 1 trillion yen ($12.2 billion) in two to three years by strengthening its ability to cope with a stronger yen and through additional cost-cutting efforts.
A number of airlines gained as April Nymex light sweet crude-oil futures fell 81 cents at $104.21 a barrel on Globex, extending Tuesday’s losses following reports that allies of Col. Moammar Gadhafi were debating the Libyan leader’s exit. The prospect of Western military intervention in the North African country and the possibility that the U.S. could tap strategic supplies also pressured crude oil.
Korean Air Lines rose 1% and Asiana Airlines Inc. rose 1.5% in Seoul, All Nippon Airways Co. (JP:9202 287.00, +2.00, +0.70%) (ALNPY 7.06, -0.17, -2.35%) rose 0.7% in Tokyo, EVA Airways jumped 5.9% in Taipei and Qantas Airways (QUBSF 2.35, 0.00, 0.00%) (AU:QAN 2.34, +0.01, +0.43%) added 0.4% in Sydney.
Shares of Cathay Pacific (CPCAY 11.71, +0.31, +2.72%) (HK:293 18.94, +0.82, +4.53%) soared 4.5% after the Hong Kong carrier said its 2010 profit nearly tripled and boosted its dividend payout.
Chinese banks advanced on optimism over their upcoming 2010 earnings reports, with the stocks also aided by media reports that the People’s Bank of China had reversed a punitive increase in reserve requirements it had imposed on some lenders. Shares of Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (IDCBY 16.07, +0.30, +1.90%) (HK:1398 6.28, +0.09, +1.45%) (CN:601398 4.42, +0.01, +0.23%) added 1.5% and Bank of China (BACHY 13.48, +0.13, +0.97%) (HK:3988 4.24, +0.04, +0.95%) (CN:601988 3.41, +0.07, +2.10%) rose 1% in Hong Kong; in Shanghai, the stocks outperformed the broad market, rising 0.2% and 2.1%, respectively.
Gains in Shanghai were capped by coal miners and gold firms, which fell in line with a retreat in commodity prices Tuesday. China Coal Energy (CCOZY 29.00, +0.05, +0.17%) (CN:601898 11.50, -0.10, -0.86%) fell 0.9%, while Shandong Gold-Mining (CN:600547 49.54, -0.68, -1.35%) dropped 1.4%.
In Seoul, foreign investors’ sales capped the Kospi’s rise, with Hynix Semiconductor Inc. (HXSCF 0.00, 0.00, 0.00%) losing 0.9% and Korea Kumho PetroChemical Co. dropping 3.6%.
