Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Ethan Devine, a partner at Indus Capital Partners LLC, talks about the scandal at Japan camera maker Olympus Corp. Olympus shares rose the most in more than two months yesterday on optimism the company will survive a delisting threat and after its auditors took legal action against executives over a $1.7 billion accounting fraud. Devine speaks with Susan Li on Bloomberg Television's "First Up." (Source: Bloomberg)
Asian stocks swung between gains and losses as optimism about the U.S. economy tempered concern Europe’s debt crisis is worsening ahead of a German bond sale.
James Hardie Industries SE (JHX), a maker of building materials that gets most of its sales in the U.S., climbed 3 percent in Sydney. AU Optronics Corp. (2409), a supplier of liquid-crystal displays to Nokia Oyj and Dell Inc., gained 4.4 percent in Taipei. China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. fell 3.7 percent amid concern competition will increase among mainland telecoms.
“There are more positive signs particularly on employment” and consumer spending in the U.S., saidStephen Halmarick, Sydney-based head of investment markets research at Colonial First State Global Asset Management, which oversees about $150 billion. “The outlook in the U.S. is for modest growth this year, and that’s better than Europe. Expectations are Europe will be in a recession.”
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.1 percent to 116.23 as of 3:22 p.m. in Tokyo, having swung between gains and losses at least eight times. About three shares rose for every two that fell on the measure. The gauge advanced 0.9 percent last week as manufacturing growth from China to the U.S. bolstered confidence in the global economy.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index increased 0.9 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 0.3 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0.3 percent. South Korea’s Kospi Index lost 0.4 percent.
China Inflation
China’s Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) decreased 0.2 percent on concern inflation will hamper the government’s ability to ease lending curbs. A report due tomorrow will probably show consumer prices rose 4 percent in December, according to analysts’ estimates.
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.2 percent today. The gauge rose 0.9 percent in New York yesterday as global equities rallied amid bets that China will ease monetary policy to spur growth in the world’s second-largest economy.
Exporters advanced as U.S. employers hired 4.15 million workers in November, 107,000 more than in the prior month, the Labor Department said yesterday. A survey by Chief Executive magazine showed confidence among American CEOs rose last month to the highest level since May.
James Hardie rose 3 percent to A$7.12 in Sydney. AU Optronics climbed 4.4 percent to NT$14.30 in Taipei. LG Display Co. (034220), the world’s second-largest LCD maker by sales, gained 2.7 percent to 26,800 won in Seoul.
Europe Risk
“The strong outlook and underpinnings of the U.S. economy are much more important to the Asian market outlook than European uncertainty,” said Sandy Mehta, Hong Kong-based chief executive officer of Value Investment Principals Ltd. “We think the Europe situation remains difficult and presents risk, but much of this is already discounted by investors and the situation will be more stable by mid-year.”
Reports today may show Germany’s economic growth slowed last year and Spanish industrial production shrank by the most since 2009. Spain will auction as much as 5 billion euros ($6.4 billion) of bonds due 2015 and 2016 tomorrow, while Italy is scheduled to sell 12 billion euros of bills. Germany will auction 4 billion euros of five-year notes today.
Raw material producers advanced after the London Metals Exchange Index (LMEX), which tracks prices of six primary metals including aluminum and copper, rose for a third day yesterday. Aluminum prices may rise more than 6 percent by the end of the quarter as processing companies replenish inventory to meet demand, said Vedanta Resources Plc, India’s biggest producer.
Apple’s iPhone
BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), the world’s biggest mining company, increased 1.5 percent to A$36.18 in Sydney. Jiangxi Copper Co., China’s largest producer of the metal, advanced 1.7 percent to HK$17.88 in Hong Kong. Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd., the nation’s No. 1 supplier of the light metal, climbed 2.6 percent to HK$3.62.
Chinese phone companies declined today amid concern increasing competition will hurt profit as China Telecom Corp., the nation’s third-largest carrier, moves closer to getting government approval to offer Apple Inc.’s iPhone.
China Unicom, the mainland’s only iPhone distributor, sank 3.7 percent to HK$15.84. China Telecom lost 1.4 percent to HK$4.22.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) lost 17 percent in 2011 as China took steps to cool its property market and Europe struggled to resolve its debt crisis. The S&P 500 Index broke even for the year and the Stoxx Europe 600 Index dropped 11 percent. Stocks in the Asian gauge were valued at 12.2 times estimated earnings on average as of yesterday, compared with 12.3 times for the S&P 500 and 10 times for the Stoxx 600.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility at the center of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear disaster, declined 6.1 percent to 202 yen. Tepco, as the company is known, is in talks with banks to borrow as much as 2 trillion yen ($26 billion) to help stave off bankruptcy.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Burgos in Singapore at jburgos4@bloomberg.net; Yoshiaki Nohara in Tokyo at ynohara1@bloomberg.net
(bloomberg.com)
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