TOKYO (Nov 28): Most Asian stocks rose as Japanese equities advanced as investors weighed economic data including inflation. Energy shares led losses after oil prices plunged.
Almost two shares rose for each that fell on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index, which rose less than 0.1 percent to 140.84 as of 9:05 a.m. in Tokyo. The measure is heading for a 0.6 percent weekly advance, paring its monthly decline to 0.7 percent. Japan’s Topix index climbed 0.8 percent as the yen fell for the first time in four days. U.S. markets were closed yesterday for the Thanksgiving holiday.
“Major central banks have been trying to push inflation higher and oil prices will make this difficult to achieve,” Stan Shamu, Melbourne-based market strategist at IG Ltd., wrote in a note. “The ECB and BOJ are likely to step up stimulus efforts if they are to reach their inflation goals.”
The Asia-Pacific measure rebounded 5.3 percent from an Oct. 17 low through yesterday as the Bank of Japan expanded bond purchases, China cut interest rates and speculation grew the European Central Bank will take more stimulus measures. ECB President Mario Draghi said yesterday the bank is open to buying a wide variety of assets for further easing.
Japan’s consumer price index slowed a third straight month amid tumbling oil prices, challenging the BOJ’s efforts to stoke inflation. CPI growth excluding food fell in October to 2.9 percent from a year earlier from 3 percent the month before. Retail sales rose 1.4 percent from a year earlier after gaining 2.3 percent in September. The economy slid into recession last quarter after an April sales-tax increase damped consumer spending. Industrial production unexpectedly rose.
Oil Plunges
West Texas Intermediate crude headed for the biggest weekly decline in three years after OPEC yesterday refrained from easing a global supply glut, resisting calls from Venezuela to stem the rout in oil prices.
South Korea’s Kospi index slid 0.1 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index lost 1.2 percent, while New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index added 0.3 percent.
Futures on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0.2 percent in their most recent trading session, and contracts on the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index climbed 0.4 percent.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has tied the BOJ’s hands with a delay to another sales-tax increase that’s hurt confidence in the nation’s finances, Hideo Hayakawa, a former chief economist at the central bank, said in an interview yesterday. Additional easing would be hard because central bank Governor Haruhiko Kuroda has effectively made fiscal improvement a premise for any further monetary stimulus, he said.