Asian Markets Round-up - Chinese, Japanese & US Data Help To Drive Gains

Online, August 2, 2013 (Newswire.com) - Asian markets rose across the region after positive data from China and The United States. The Chinese official Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose against expectations to 50.3 in July. A figure above 50 represents improvement while one below shows that conditions have deteriorated. A different survey from HSBC, showed China´s PMI falling to 47.7, an 11-month low. Asian markets analyst Robert Todd at TCL Associates in Tokyo explained the difference between these two figures, "At the beginning of the year the official bureau increased the number of companies surveyed from 820 to 3,000 and is weighted towards heavy industry, while the HSBC survey is of 420 smaller private businesses."

The Shanghai Composite climbed 1.8%, while the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong gained 0.9%. In Tokyo the Nikkei Stock Average overcame a difficult morning, and jumped 2.5%, its biggest gain in three weeks. The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia added 0.2% and South Korea´s Kospi rose 0.4%.

A number of earnings reports were released in Tokyo driving gains in the market. Panasonic Corp. net profit soared to 107.83 billion yen for quarter 2 of this year, versus 12.81 billion yen in the same period last year. The increase comes from a weaker yen boosting exports and change in the management of its pension fund added 79.8 billion yen to the profits. This drove the stock price up 6.8%. Tokyo Electric also reported a jump in quarterly profits, and gained 8%.

Japan´s biggest banking group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. reported a 40% gain in net profits for quarter two driven by fees from the selling of financial products and growth in non-interest accumulating income. Over the past few years bond trading was the primary driver of profits of the bank, but with the Bank of Japan´s recent easing measures they have had to shift focus away from government bonds.