CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Asian stock markets are up with strong gains on Monday, tracking cues from Wall Street where the major averages rose sharply last Friday amid easing worries about the global economy and on hopes the U.S. Federal Reserve may delay ending its asset purchase program.
Financial, mining, consumer discretionary, industrials and information technology stocks are moving higher in the Australian market.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is up 47.5 points or 0.9 percent at 5,319.2, after advancing to 5,342.0 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries index, which rose to 5,328.6, is up 47.2 points or 0.9 percent at 5,307.3.
Among bank stocks, ANZ Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac (WBK) are up 1.2 to 1.5 percent, while Commonwealth Bank of Australia is advancing 0.8 percent. Bendigo & Adelaide Bank and Bank of Queensland are moving up 1.7 perecnt and 1 percent, respectively.
Among top miners, BHP Billiton (BHP) is moving up 1.2 percent, Rio Tinto (RIO) is adding 0.3 percent and Fortescue Metals is up 1.1 percent, while Newcrest Mining is declining 1.8 percent.
Downer EDI is moving up nearly 3.5 percent after the company said it has signed an agreement to acquire all of the shares in Tenix Holdings Australia Private Limited for $300 million on a cash and debt free basis.
REA Group is up 3.3 percent and Challenger is advancing 3 percent. Navitas, Alumina (AWC), Fairfax Media, Sonic Healthcare and Aristocrat Leisure are up 2.3 to 3 percent.
Perpetual, Aurizon Holdings, Henderson Group, Amcor, AMP, Lend Lease Group, Leighton Holdings and Macquaire Group are up 1.5 to 2 percent.
Arrium is advancing 1.5 percent. The company said it shipped a record 3.45 million tonnes of iron ore in the September quarter, up 0.29 million tonnes from the previous quarter.
In the currency market, the Australian dollar opened slightly higher against the U.S. dollar. In early trades, the local unit was quoting at US$0.8755, up from Friday's close of US$9.8747. The mood is fairly positive amid slightly easing worries about the global economy following some upbeat data out of the U.S.
The Japanese stock market rallied sharply this morning, on the back of a strong lead from Wall Street and a weaker yen. A report that said the Japanese pension fund will increase its allocation target for local shares to 25 percent contributed as well to the market's gains.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 486.0 points or 3.3 percent at 15,018.5 at the end of the morning session, after scaling a high of 15,044.7.
All the members of the Nikkei 225 index were up in positive territory when the morning session ended.
Hitachi Zosen, Minebea Co., Tokyu Fudosan Holdings, IHI Corp., Yaskawa Electric, JTEKT Corp., Sumco Corp., Hino Motors, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Resona Holdings, Mazda Motor and Toyota Motor gained 5 to 8 percent.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries rose more than 5 percent. The company unveiled its new Mitsubishi Regional Jet on Saturday.
NEC Corp. shares were up 4.8 percent amid reports the company's operating profit likely rose 50-fold in the first half.
Pioneer Corp., East Japan Railway, Softbank Corp., Japan Tobacco, Toho Zinc, Fujitsu, Taisei Corp., Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Suzuki Motor, Sharp Corp., Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding, Daikin Industries, Dentsu Inc, Taiheiyo Cement, Central Japan Railway and Fuji Heavy Industries were all up more than 4 percent at the break.
The Bank of Japan's Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said Monday that Japan's economy is recovering gradually though output has shown weakness. The recovering trend is expected to continue as the effects of consumption tax begins to wane, he said. He added that core inflation is likely to remain at 1.25 percent in the future.
Kuroda noted that the bank's policy of quantitative and qualitative monetary easing, which is exerting the desired effects, will be maintained as long as needed to achieve 2 percent inflation.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the lower 107 yen range in early deals in Tokyo, up from Friday's close of 106.42 yen.
Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Indonesia, South Korea and Taiwan are up sharply. Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shangahi are also up with strong gains.
On Wall Street, stocks ended sharply higher on Friday amid speculation the U.S. Federal Reserve may delay the end of its asset purchase program following recent comments from St Louis Fed President James Bullard.
The Dow soared 273.2 points or 1.6 percent to 16,380.4, the Nasdaq jumped 41.0 points or 1 percent to 4,258.4 and the S&P 500 surged up 24.0 points or 1.3 percent to 1,886.8.
Major European markets too closed sharply higher on Friday. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index jumped 1.9 percent, the French CAC 40 index and the German DAX index surged up by 29 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX