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Asian stocks mostly higher, led by gains on Nikkei

Published 05/23/2014, 12:02 AM
Updated 05/23/2014, 12:06 AM
Nikkei leads Asia higher

Nikkei leads Asia higher

Investing.com - Asian shares were led higher by Japan on Friday with tentative signs of a more upbeat outlook for the region with China's maufacturing on a slight upswing and India's new government poised to focus on the economy.

Still, the potential impact of a military coup in Thailand weighs on regional sentiment even as Thai stocks have proved resilient with the SET 100 flat week-to-date and one of Asia's best performing markets so far in 2014.

The Nikkei 225 was up 0.94% on the morning and on track to complete its best week in over a month, with the index up 2.6% week-to-date.

Sony Corp Ord (TOKYO:6758) fell 2.3% in Tokyo after the market was left unimpressed by its chief executive's ambitious target to increase the company's operating profit by threefold by next fiscal year.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.4% and South Korea's KOSPI added less than 0.1%.

But Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index inched down 0.08% and the Shanghai Composite fell 0.03%.

Overnight, U.S. stocks rose on the coattails of solid economic indicators coupled with ongoing expectations for the Federal Reserve to keep benchmark interest rates at rock-bottom levels for a considerable time period after monetary stimulus programs wrap up.

The Dow 30 rose 0.06%, the S&P 500 index rose 0.24%, while the NASDAQ Composite Composite index rose 0.55%.

The National Association of Realtors reported earlier that U.S. existing home sales increased 1.3% in April to an annual rate of 4.65 million units.

Analysts were expecting existing home sales to rise 2.2% to 4.68 million last month, however, April's increase indicated that the housing market continues to improve and drew applause on Wall Street.

A separate report showed that U.S. manufacturing activity expanded at a faster rate than expected this month. London-based Markit Economics reported earlier that its preliminary U.S. manufacturing purchasing managers' index rose to 56.2 from a final reading of 55.4 in April, beating expectations of 55.5.

The data came after the Labor Department reported that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits last week increased by 28,000 to 326,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 298,000. Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 12,000 to 310,000, though markets shrugged off the data.

Expectations for monetary policy to transition from ultra-loose to accommodative over the long term also boosted stock prices.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve released the minutes of its April policy meeting, which revealed the U.S. central bank plans to continue tapering its monthly bond-buying program and rely on other tools to normalize monetary policy, though actual rate hikes won't come for a considerable amount of time.

On Friday, the U.S. is to round up the week with data on new homes sales.

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