Looking very positive here, right up near a new 52 week high. Index Value: 11,249.69 Trade Time: 7:56PM ET Change: 207.77 (1.88%) Prev Close: 11,041.92 Open: 11,112.68 Day's Range: 11,096.68 - 11,253.28 52wk Range: 10,299.43 - 11,193.64
Index Value: 11,313.10 Trade Time: 9:00PM ET Change: 271.18 (2.46%) Prev Close: 11,041.92 Open: 11,112.68 Day's Range: 11,096.68 - 11,313.10 52wk Range: 10,299.43 - 11,193.64
Asian Stocks Advance, Led by Tokyo Electron, TDK, BHP Billiton March 1 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks rose, sending a regional index to a three-year high, after a U.S. report showed the world's largest economy grew faster than the government estimated. Tokyo Electron Ltd. and BHP Billiton led gains. The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia Pacific Index, which tracks more than 800 stocks in the region, gained 1.6 percent to 91.88, the highest since February 2001, at 11 a.m., Tokyo time. Mizuho Financial Group Inc. and Aeon Co. rose after reports on Friday showed Japan's consumer and capital spending increased. The ``U.S. economy is looking a lot stronger than expected,'' said Kazunori Ohtomo, who helps manage the equivalent of $1.9 billion at STB Asset Management Co. in Tokyo. Improvements in the global economy are giving more reasons ``for investors to buy stocks.'' Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average advanced 2.5 percent to 11,313.10, the highest in 21 months, led by Tokyo Electron, which sells more than half of its chip-making equipment overseas. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index rose to a more than two-year high. BHP Billiton, the world's biggest miner, gained after agreeing to sell about $9 billion worth of iron ore to China. Benchmarks in all markets opened in the region advanced, while indexes in New Zealand and the Philippines were little changed. South Korean markets are shut for a public holiday. The U.S. economy expanded at a 4.1 percent annual pace in the fourth quarter as companies rebuilt inventories, the Commerce Department said on Friday. Economists had predicted the rate would be revised to 3.8 percent, based on the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey. Economic reports this week will probably show U.S. employers added more jobs in February than in any month since late 2000, and manufacturing expanded for a 10th straight month, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Factory Production, Spending Tokyo Electron, second only to Applied Materials Inc. of the U.S. in chip equipment sales, jumped 3.3 percent to 6,810 yen. TDK Corp., the nation's largest maker of disk-drive parts, added 2.1 percent to 7,780 yen. The company gets more than more than two- thirds of its sales from overseas. Banks and retailers such as Mizuho Financial Group Inc. and Aeon Co. extended advances after Japanese government reports on Friday showed factory production and household spending increased. Mizuho added 1.8 percent to 335,000 yen on optimism economic recovery will help them speed up efforts to write off bad loans. Aeon Co., Japan's No. 3 retailer, added 7.1 percent to 4,250 yen. The Topix index rose 2.1 percent to 1105.44, the first time above 1100 in more than four months. China Contract The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 0.5 percent to 3377.60, the highest since May 30, 2002. BHP Billiton climbed 1.1 percent to A$12.39 after it agreed to sell iron ore to four Chinese steelmakers, including Tangshan Iron & Steel Co., under a 25-year contract worth about $9 billion to meet rising demand. BHP Billiton will supply about 12 million metric tons a year of the steel ingredient under a joint venture called Wheelarra, the Melbourne-based company said in a statement. The other venture partners are Wuhan Iron and Steel, Maanshan Iron & Steel and Jiangsu Shagang Group Co. Newcrest Mining Ltd., Australia's biggest gold miner, climbed 2.9 percent to A$11.83, leading gold miners higher after the precious metal rebounded from a three-month low. Gold for April delivery rose $1.60, or 0.4 percent, to $398.40 an ounce in after-hours trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange at 11:20 a.m. Sydney time. UBS AG also upgraded its share-price forecast for Newcrest, with no time period given, to A$13.50 from A$12.00, saying ``the start of gold production at Toguraci and Telfer mines, and a higher copper price are the key drivers for a better second half.'' To contact the reporter on this story: Tomoko Yamazaki in Tokyo at tyamazaki@bloomberg.net To contact the editor for this story: Teo Chian Wei at cwteo@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: February 29, 2004 21:24 EST