BLBG:Asian Stocks Rally as Oil, Won Rise Before European Leaders Meet on Crisis
Asian stocks climbed, with China shares set for the biggest three-day gain in a year, amid speculation that policy makers may act to spur growth in the world’s second-largest economy. Euro Stoxx 50 Index futures rose before European leaders met to discuss the debt crisis.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rallied 1.1 percent at 4:20 p.m. in Tokyo. Euro Stoxx 50 futures added 1.1 percent and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures increased 0.5 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index jumped 2.7 percent, heading for a three-day, 6.4 percent advance. South Korea’s won appreciated the most in three weeks, while the New Zealand dollar strengthened against all 16 major counterparts. Oil climbed 0.7 percent to $102.06 a barrel and gold and copper rose.
China’s import growth fell to a two-year low in December, government trade data showed today, underscoring an economic slowdown. The nation’s economy won’t have a hard landing this year and housing prices are unlikely to collapse, said Yu Yongding, a former central bank adviser, at a forum in New York yesterday. International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are scheduled to discuss Greece at a meeting later today.
“Policy makers in Beijing are very much focused on downside risks,” said Andrew Pease, Sydney-based senior investment strategist for the Asia-Pacific region at Russell Investment Group, which oversees $137.6 billion. “It would be a reasonable expectation that there’s a lot of monetary easing to come in the first half of the year.”
The euro climbed 0.2 percent to $1.2785. Greece’s struggle to contain its debt is a “special case” and no country must leave the euro, Merkel told reporters after meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Berlin yesterday.
Bear Capitulation
S&P 500 futures rose to 1,282.10. Laszlo Birinyi, whose prediction the bull market would weather a five-month retreat came true in October, says U.S. stocks will keep climbing in 2012. Equities will gain at least 8 percent as improving corporate profits force bears to capitulate, according to Birinyi, who manages $400 million in Westport, Connecticut.
Almost three stocks rose for each that declined in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index. (MXAP) Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average increased 0.4 percent and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index gained 1.8 percent. The Kospi Index advanced 1.5 percent.
“China has yet to hit the rocks this year,” said Yu, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a top government-backed policy research institute. “People are worried about a housing market collapse. This is not warranted.”
Imports, Exports
Imports (CNFRIMPY) in China rose 11.8 percent from a year before, less than all 21 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey of economists, a government report showed today in Beijing. The moderation caused the trade surplus to increase to $16.5 billion in the month, as exports advanced 13.4 percent in December.
Olympus Corp. (7733) soared 20 percent to 1,263 yen, the second- biggest advance in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index, on speculation the camera maker will speed up its management overhaul after suing executives for their roles in a $1.7 billion cover-up of losses.
Elpida Memory Inc. (6665), the world’s third-largest maker of computer-memory chips, sank 6.7 percent to 309 yen, the lowest close since at least 2004. Elpida’s main lenders told the chipmaker to craft a government-approved restructuring plan to receive continued financial support, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, without saying where it got the information.
Aussie, Kiwi
The Australian dollar climbed 0.7 percent to $1.0307 and the New Zealand currency strengthened 0.8 percent to 79.34 U.S. cents. In Australia, the number of permits granted to build or renovate houses and apartments advanced 8.4 percent from October, when they fell a revised 10 percent, according to the Bureau of Statistics. The gain was the first in three months.
“There’s a little bit of improved risk sentiment out there,” said Andrew Salter, a currency strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Sydney. “The market underestimates the determination of European leaders to find a solution.”
South Korea’s won rose 0.6 percent to 1,156.69 per dollar. Finance Minister Bahk Jae Wan said yesterday that overseas central banks are showing growing appetite for the nation’s debt, Yonhap Infomax reported.
Copper for delivery in three months climbed 1.1 percent to $7,580 per metric ton. Imports of the metal by China, the biggest consumer, declined 5.1 percent last year, the first drop since 2008, amid destocking and slowing demand growth, customs data showed today. Spot gold advanced 0.6 percent to $1,621.57 an ounce.
To contact the reporters on this story: Lynn Thomasson in Hong Kong at lthomasson@bloomberg.net; Jonathan Burgos in Singapore at jburgos4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Gentle at ngentle2@bloomberg.net
