Asian Stocks Rise on U.S. Consumer Confidence; Canon Jumps

Asian stocks rose, with the regional benchmark index heading for its highest close in almost two months, after a report showed U.S. consumer confidence increased, boosting the outlook for Asian exporters.

Samsung Electronics Co., Asia’s largest maker of chips, flat screens and mobile phones, gained 2.9 percent in Seoul. Canon Inc. (7751), the world’s biggest manufacturer of cameras, surged 6 percent in Tokyo. Origin Energy Ltd. (ORG), Australia’s No. 1 energy retailer, increased 4 percent in Sydney after it and partner ConocoPhillips signed an agreement last week to supply liquefied natural gas to China Petrochemical Corp. Australia resumed trading today following a five-day Easter break.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 1 percent to 139.30 as of 11 a.m. in Tokyo, set for its highest close since March 4. More than three stocks gained for each that fell on the gauge. The measure climbed 2.2 percent last week after U.S. companies including Apple Inc. reported increased profits, signaling the global economic recovery is accelerating.

“The U.S. economy is recovering and corporate earnings are strong,” said Hiroichi Nishi, an equities manager in Tokyo at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. “More and more manufacturers are resuming operations at factories. That means the impact of the earthquake disaster won’t last for long, and that’s positive for stocks.”

Japan’s Nikkei 225 (NKY) Stock Average increased 1.3 percent as the government said 90 percent of the country’s earthquake- stricken factories will resume production by July. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index jumped 0.8 percent, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.6 percent. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index rose 0.3 percent.

South Korea’s Kospi Index climbed 0.6 percent as the nation’s economic growth accelerated in the first quarter, driven by exports. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index lost 0.1 percent, erasing gains of as much as 0.3 percent, as a report showed the country’s consumer prices gained the most in five years in the first quarter.
Exporters Rally

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.1 percent today. In New York, the index rose 0.9 percent to 1,347.24 yesterday, the highest level since June 2008, as earnings at companies from 3M Co. to United Parcel Service Inc. and Ford Motor Co. topped analysts’ estimates and after a report showed confidence among U.S. consumers increased more than forecast in April.

Exporters advanced after a report from the New York-based Conference Board showed the confidence index rose to 65.4 in April from a revised 63.8 reading in March. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected an advance to 64.5.

Samsung Electronics, which gets about 22 percent of sales from America, climbed 2.9 percent to 923,000 won in Seoul. LG Electronics Inc., South Korea’s second-biggest electronics maker, gained 2.4 percent to 107,000 won. Canon, which gets more than 80 percent of its sales outside of Japan, surged 6 percent to 3,705 yen in Tokyo.

Federal Reserve policy makers began two days of meetings yesterday, and will likely say they’ll complete a second round of scheduled bond purchases worth $600 billion through the end of June to help sustain the recovery.
Origin Energy, TSMC

Origin Energy jumped 4 percent to A$16.88. The company and its partner ConocoPhillips last week clinched Australia’s largest liquefied-natural-gas export deal, agreeing to supply 4.3 million metric tons of the fuel a year over two decades to China Petrochemical, also known as Sinopec Group.

The Australia-Pacific LNG venture partners also agreed to sell a 15 percent stake in the proposed $18.5 billion LNG project in Queensland state to Sinopec for $1.5 billion.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract chipmaker, advanced 2.1 percent to NT$71.8 in Taipei after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its rating on the stock to “buy” from “neutral” and raised its share-price forecast to NT$90 from NT$64.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 0.2 percent this year through yesterday, compared with gains of 7.1 percent by the S&P 500 and 2 percent by the Stoxx Europe 600 Index. Stocks in the Asian benchmark are valued at 13.2 times estimated earnings on average, compared with 13.7 times for the S&P 500 and 11.4 times for the Stoxx 600.