Asian Stocks Gain on U.S. Manufacturing Report, Commodities

Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks rose, led by electronics and mining companies, after U.S. manufacturing expanded at the fastest pace in more than three years and commodity prices advanced.

Sony Corp., Japan’s biggest exporter of televisions, rose 1.3 percent. Mitsubishi Corp., a Japanese trading company that gets 39 percent of its sales from commodities, added 3.1 percent on higher oil and metal prices. STX Pan Ocean Co., South Korea’s biggest bulk carrier, climbed 3.1 percent after a gauge of shipping rates advanced.

“We can see from the positive U.S. economic data and rising commodity prices that there is a strong anticipation of a global self-sustaining recovery,” said Fumiyuki Nakanishi, a strategist at Tokyo-based SMBC Friend Securities Co.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 0.7 percent to 122.87 as of 9:58 a.m. in Tokyo. The gauge climbed 34 percent last year as lower interest rates and stimulus measures shored up the global economy.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average added 0.8 percent, while the S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 1 percent in Sydney.

Futures on the S&P 500 fell 0.1 percent. The gauge rose 1.6 percent in New York yesterday, the most since Nov. 9, after the Institute for Supply Management said its factory index rose to 55.9, the highest level since April 2006. The median estimate by economists was 54.3. Readings greater than 50 signal expansion.

Stocks around the world rallied last year on signs economies were recovering from the credit crisis. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index’s 2009 advance outpaced gains of 23 percent by the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and 28 percent for Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index. Stocks in the gauge are valued at an average of 20 times estimated earnings, compared with 18 times for the S&P and 13 for the Stoxx.

Raw-material producers and energy companies accounted for 22 percent of the MSCI Asia Pacific Index’s advance today, with Mitsubishi gaining 3.1 percent to 2,390 yen.

Crude oil for February delivery rose 2.7 percent to $81.51 a barrel in New York yesterday, the highest settlement since October 2008, as freezing weather and improving global economies bolstered the outlook for fuel demand. Gold prices surged the most in two months, or 2 percent, and copper futures for March delivery climbed 1.8 percent.

In Seoul, STX Pan Ocean climbed 3.1 percent to 11,650 won after the Baltic Dry Index, a measure of shipping costs for commodities, jumped 4.5 percent in London yesterday, the first gain since Dec. 4.