Market Report - Asia Gains on Wall Street Rally

ZHANG: Asia stocks surged on Wednesday. Investors bought financial shares, hoping the worst of the global credit crisis may be over.
Japan's Nikkei gained 4.2 percent (13,189), tapping a one month closing high.

Banking shares such as Nomura jumped after securities offerings by U.S. bank Lehman Brothers and Swiss bank UBS met strong demand. Both companies issued new shares to help bolster their balance sheets.

The demand was enough to counteract a $19 billion dollar write-down by UBS. The writedown also reinforced the view that banks were aggressively scrubbing their books clean of soured investments tied to the U.S. housing market.

Exporters such as Honda Motors also gained from a softening yen. The carmaker rose more than 7 percent, while others, such as Nissan, also jumped.

The Asia markets were tracking Wall Street, which began the second quarter with a big rally yesterday.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index climbed 3.2 percent, while benchmark indices in Australia, South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines all gained more than 2 percent.

The global rally was even enough to boost China stocks slightly. The Shanghai Composite Index finished 0.6 percent higher after slumping heavily in recent weeks.

Some analysts warned, though, that the rebound in Asia could be precarious. Though some investors say the worst of the credit crisis is over, others advise caution, noting that the markets have not yet stabilized.

Category:

News & Politics

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• ntd
• market
• report
• Asia
• credit
• japan
• Nikkei
• lehman
• brothers
• swiss
• bank
• UBS
• honda
• motors
• nissan
• hongkong

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