Asian Shares: Japanese Banks Rise Sharply -- 2nd Update
November 16 2016 - 4:21AM
Dow Jones News
By Ese Erheriene
Asian shares were higher early Wednesday, with financial stocks
tracking gains in the U.S., as investors added to their bets that
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's policies would be good for
global banks.
The Nikkei Stock Average closed up 1.1%. Australia's S&P/ASX
200 ended flat, Korea's Kospi finished 0.6% higher and Indonesia's
JSX Index gained 1.9%. Asian currencies, on the other hand, were
largely stable against the U.S. dollar, which has strengthened
recently.
Overnight, in the U.S., investors largely stuck with the recent
trend of dumping bonds and dividend-paying shares like utilities in
favor of financial and infrastructure stocks.
Among Japanese financials, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial surged 6.2%,
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial jumped 5.3% and Mizuho Financial rose
6.3%.
Elsewhere, Taiwan's finance subindex ended 0.2% higher, the
S&P/ASX financials subsection added 0.6% and the Philippines'
finance index was up 0.5%.
Expectations for higher interest rates and reduced regulation
under Mr. Trump's presidency "bodes well for the financials, not
just in the U.S. but across the world," said Woon Tian Yong, an
investment analyst at Phillip Futures. "Their profit margins will
be wider with higher yields."
In addition, Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda said Wednesday
he was watching regional banks there with "deep interest," an
indication of his concern that their earnings prospects could
worsen with deeper rate cuts.
In Hong Kong, stocks reversed earlier gains in the last hour of
trading, dragged lower by a mixed open in European markets; the
U.K.'s FTSE 100 was recently down 0.1%. The Hang Seng Index ended
down 0.2%. In the morning, it was up by as much as 0.8%.
Meanwhile, crude oil prices shot up overnight, as members of the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries hammered out the
details of a proposed output cut, which helped shares of producers
across Asia.
Japanese oil explorer Inpex ended up 3% and Japan Petroleum
Exploration added 2.3%. Australia's Oil Search and Woodside
Petroleum jumped 3.4% and 2.4%, respectively. Chinese oil major
Cnooc was up 1.8% in Hong Kong. Brent, the global oil benchmark,
was recently down 0.4% after rallying more than 3% in the previous
session.
The OPEC news "gave a lot of optimism," said Jingyi Pan, a
market strategist at IG Markets. "We are pretty close to the [Nov.
30] meeting, so some of this optimism is getting priced into the
market."
Elsewhere, Asian technology stocks rebounded from recent
declines, taking a nod from the U.S. This follows brisk retail
sales growth in the U.S. for October, supporting hopes for a strong
holiday shopping season.
South Korea's Samsung Electronics rose 1.2%. In Taiwan, Foxconn
Technology added 2.1%, while HTC Corp. rose 1.2%.
Nintendo shares rose 2.8% after the company unveiled plans to
launch its highly anticipated mobile app "Super Mario
Run,"--Nintendo's first-ever smartphone game featuring one of its
iconic characters--next month.
In China, the tech-heavy Shenzhen ChiNext board ended up 0.2%,
outpacing the main Shenzhen index, which closed flat. The Shanghai
Composite Index opened higher but closed down 0.1%.
The Bank of Shanghai surged on its trading debut after raising
10.7 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) in the biggest initial public
offering in China so far this year. Shares of China's
second-largest municipal bank surged 44%, the first-day upward
limit for new IPOs.
Takashi Nakamichi, Sarah E. Needleman and Yifan Xie contributed
to this article.
Write to Ese Erheriene at ese.erheriene@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 16, 2016 04:06 ET (09:06 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.