Asian Shares Higher On Wall Street Surge; Miners Buoy Sydney

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By Colin Ng

SINGAPORE (MarketWatch) -- Asian stock markets were higher Thursday, lifted by Wall Street's surge Wednesday, with miners leading Sydney stocks up and exporters supporting Japan.

Christmas came early for U.S. stocks, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500-stock index and the Nasdaq Composite all rising more than 2%, bolstered by solid U.S. economic data--private sector jobs, productivity and construction spending--and on hopes that the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis could be resolved.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average was up 1.7%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 1.6%, South Korea's Kospi Composite rose 0.7% and New Zealand's NZX-50 added 0.4%. DJIA futures were up 21 points in screen trade.

Mining stocks led the Sydney market higher with BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto both up 2.2% while Westpac rose 2.5%, though the market was off highs on news that Australian retail sales fell 1.1%, well below expectations for a 0.4% rise.

Leighton was up 2.6% after its Thiess subsidiary won a 20-year, A$5.5 billion contract to mine coal at NTPC Ltd. Pakri Barwadhi field. The Indian field is expected to produce 15 million metric tons a year of coal, Leighton said.

An unconfirmed report that the U.S. could back an expansion of the euro zone's stability fund via the International Monetary Fund was helping sentiment. "I am actually bullish, as the U.S. economic data are improving and the market is basically saying they believe (European Central Bank chief) Trichet can make this (European financial stabilization) work," said IG Markets institutional dealer Chris Weston in Sydney. "I think this could be sustainable, but I don't believe the U.S. will increase their involvement in Europe. How can they throw money at Europe when they can't afford to bail themselves out?"

Solid U.S. data, stock market rallies in the U.S. and Europe, as well as a weaker yen on Wednesday lifted Japanese shares. "The key issue is that the U.S. economy...is looking likely to improve in the coming year," said Masayoshi Yano, market analyst at Meiwa Securities.

All 33 of the Topix's subindexes were higher with Canon up 2.3% and Olympus up 2.9% on the yen's drop. Toyota Motor slipped 0.3% on news of a 3.3% fall in U.S. new-vehicle sales in November.

Stronger offshore markets and upbeat economic data from Europe, U.S. and China over the past day lifted New Zealand shares. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 2.0% as exporters were helped by selling pressure in the New Zealand dollar, which is being hurt by the soft domestic backdrop.

Contact Energy added 0.5% on news it has approval to build a windfarm, while Pyne Gould rose 2.7% as a merger between its wholly-owned financial services company MARAC, CBS Canterbury and Southern Cross Building Society aimed at creating New Zealand's first listed bank moves closer.

Solid economic data from the U.S. and China Wednesday helped the Kospi higher. Hyundai Motor rose 0.8% after the company announced robust U.S. sales Wednesday while Kia Motors was up 2.8%. Tech shares gained on hopes for improved business next year with Samsung Electronics up 1.8% and Hynix Semiconductor up 2.1%.