Reply #12: Asian Stocks Climb for Third Day; BHP, Marui, Banks Lead Gains [View All]

[Ghost Dog]

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks rose, sending the region's benchmark to a six-week high, as a rally in commodity prices and profit reports at Standard Chartered Plc and Marui Group Co. stoked optimism earnings will endure a global slowdown.

BHP Billiton Ltd. gained in Australia after crude oil climbed to a record and copper futures rose. Standard Chartered, the London-based bank that makes two-thirds of its profit in Asia, jumped to a three-week high in Hong Kong, while Marui, Japan's third-biggest department-store operator by market value, surged the most in eight years on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

``Some of the excess bearishness concerning the domestic and global economies is melting away,'' said Takashi Miyazaki, who helps oversee $61 billion at Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. in Tokyo.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 2.1 percent to 149.32 as of 5:04 p.m. in Tokyo, extending a two-day, 1.8 percent rally. The benchmark, poised for its highest close since Jan. 15, has rallied 13 percent since hitting a 14-month low on Jan. 22 as concern eased that a U.S. housing slump will drag the world's largest economy into a recession.

Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average added 1.5 percent to 14,031.30, a seven-week high. Benchmarks advanced in all other markets open for trading, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index posting the biggest gain of 3.2 percent. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. led Chinese banks higher in the city, after JPMorgan Chase & Co. advised investors to buy their shares.

/... http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aeUCD0_W9les&refer=asia