adminToyota Motor Corp, Japan’s biggest company, rose 1 percent. Rio Tinto Group, the world’s second-largest mining company, climbed 1,4 percent as metals prices increased.
Tencent Holdings Ltd slumped 4 percent after analysts cut price targets on China’s largest Internet company.
Esprit Holdings Ltd a clothier that counts Europe as its biggest market, slid 2,2 percent as Cyprus politicians searched for a way to address its banking crisis. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 0,4 percent to 134,91 while a measure that excludes Japanese shares dropped 0,2 percent for a fourth day of retreat. Shares in Tokyo climbed the most of any Asian market, with the Nikkei 225 Stock Average rising to the highest since September 2008, as the market reopened following yesterday’s holiday.
“Asian equities can still rise 15 to 20 percent from here by the end of the year,” Herald Van Der Linde, head of equity strategy for Asia Pacific at HSBC Holding Plc in Hong Kong, said in a phone interview. Stocks “will benefit from improving financial conditions as a result of interventions of major central banks. China continues to be a good value market”.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 12 percent from mid-November through yesterday as investors bet that a change of leadership in Japan would press its central bank to deploy more easing.
That pushed valuations on the gauge to 15 times estimated earnings yesterday compared with 14,1 for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and a multiple of 12.8 for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 0,1 percent, dragged lower by Tencent’s decline. China’s Shanghai Composite Index gained 0,3 percent after the March reading for the Purchasing Managers Index from HSBC and Market Economics showed factory activity accelerating in China. — Bloomberg.
Online Reporter