Results lift Asian scrips

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian stocks rose for a second day, led by exporters, after earnings reports damped concern the global economy is headed for a slowdown.

The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia-Pacific Index climbed 0.3 per cent to 147.90 as of 6 pm in Tokyo. The measure is 0.9 per cent below last week's record close of 149.27. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average added less than 0.1 per cent to 17,455.37, after earlier rising as much as 1.2 per cent.

JFE might increase its pre-tax profit by 2 per cent to about 520 billion yen, the Nikkei said, without saying where it got the information. It would probably increase its dividend for the financial half year ending September 30 by 10 yen to 60 yen, the report also said. The stock jumped 0.9 per cent to 6,530 yen.

Profit for the year ended March 31 at Nippon Steel Corp, its larger rival, might be 2 per cent above estimates at a record 600 billion yen ($5.1 billion), the Nikkei newspaper also said. The shares were unchanged at 769 yen, after earlier rising as much as 1.8 per cent.

Sumitomo Metal Industries, Japan's third-largest steelmaker, climbed 1.5 per cent to 609 yen. Posco, the world's fourth-largest steelmaker, added 3.6 per cent to 387,500 won.

US

US stock and index futures declined on speculation earnings may not justify share prices that sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a record close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures expiring in June lost 2.6 to 1,490.50 as of 10:32 am in London. Dow average futures fell 12 to 13,007. Nasdaq-100 Index futures slid 3.75 to 1,858.75.

A third of S&P 500 members have yet to report their latest results. Earnings releases today may provide a further gauge of how well companies are coping with slowing economic growth.

The S&P 500 has gained 4.7 per cent year-to-date, while Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index advanced 6.4 per cent.

Europe

European stocks fell from the highest in more than six years on concern companies may be spending too much to buy rivals.

The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index lost 0.1 per cent to 388.74 at 11:03 am in London. The Stoxx 50 slid 0.2 per cent and the Euro Stoxx 50, a measure for the 13 nations sharing the euro, declined 0.4 per cent.

Takeovers helped send the Stoxx 600 to the highest since September 2000 last week. Investors speculated that the more than $100 billion in acquisitions today may overstate the value of some companies.

National benchmarks fell in 12 of the 18 western European markets. The UK's FTSE slipped 0.1 per cent, France's CAC 40 lost 0.4 per cent and Germany's DAX fell 0.2 per cent.

Shares of Barclays dropped 1.7 per cent to 737.5 pence after Britain's third-largest bank bid 67 billion euros ($91 billion) for the Dutch bank.

Barclays plans to pay 3.225 new shares for each ABN Amro share, amounting to 36.25 euros a share based on closing prices on April 20, the banks said in a statement today. In a related deal, ABN Amro will sell Chicago-based LaSalle Bank to Bank of America Corp. Shares of ABN Amro rose 1 per cent to 36.64 euros.

Novartis climbed 1.2 per cent to 70.35 Swiss francs after the drugmaker reported an 11 per cent gain in first-quarter profit to $2.17 billion on higher sales of the heart drug Diovan and the cancer treatment Gleevec. That beat the median estimate of $1.82 billion, according to 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Nestle added 1.1 per cent to 487.25 Swiss francs. The world's largest food company said first-quarter revenue rose 6.4 per cent to 24.25 billion Swiss francs ($20 billion) driven by its acquisitions of health-food brands Uncle Tobys and Jenny Craig.