Asian Stocks Advance as Citigroup Profit Brightens Banks' Earnings Outlook

Asian stocks advanced for the first time in three days after commodity prices increased and Citigroup Inc. reported profit that exceeded analysts’ estimates, boosting the outlook for corporate earnings.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan’s biggest lender, gained 1.3 percent. Westpac Banking Corp., Australia’s second- biggest bank, rose 1.3 percent. Nintendo Co., the world’s largest maker of video-game players, climbed 1.5 percent after JPMorgan Chase & Co. recommended investors buy the stock. Inpex Corp., Japan’s biggest energy explorer, increased 1 percent.

“Market sentiment is improving,” said Fumiyuki Nakanishi, a strategist at Tokyo-based SMBC Friend Securities Co. “Expectations for corporate earnings in the financial sector are rising after the better-than-expected results at Citigroup.”

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 0.5 percent to 131.04 as of 9:32 a.m. in Tokyo. The measure completed its seventh weekly advance last week, the longest winning streak since 2006, on speculation growth in corporate profits will weather Europe’s debt crisis, Chinese steps to curb property-price inflation and concern about the pace of the U.S. economic rebound

Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 0.7 percent. Korea’s Kospi Index gained 0.2 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index climbed 0.6 percent today.

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slid 0.3 percent. The gauge rose 0.7 percent yesterday in New York to the highest level since May 3 following Citigroup’s results and as an unexpected drop in U.S. industrial production added to signs the Federal Reserve will help fuel the economic recovery.

Output at factories, mines and utilities fell 0.2 percent in September, according to figures from the Fed, the first decline since the recession ended in June 2009.