Weak yen lifts Asia scrips

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian stocks rose, led by Japanese exporters including Toyota Motor Corp after the yen weakened.

CLP Holdings and Nippon Steel Corp led an advance by companies that pay above-average dividends.

The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia-Pacific Index, a US-dollar denominated gauge of more than 1,000 stocks, rose 1.5 per cent to 142.88 at 4:43 pm in Tokyo. All 10 industry groups included in the benchmark advanced, with utilities such as CLP posting the biggest gains.

Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average and the broader Topix index both rose 1.9 per cent, the most in five months. Australia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines were the only markets to fall in the region.

Japanese stocks fell in the morning session only to rebound as the yen retreated. A weaker currency increases the value of overseas sales at exporters and makes their products become more competitive.

Toyota, the world's second-biggest automaker, advanced 1.3 per cent to ¥7,840 , after falling as much as 0.9 per cent. TDK Corp, Japan's biggest maker of magnetic heads for hard-disk drives, rose 1.1 per cent to ¥9,350 , reversing a loss of as much as 1.4 per cent.

US

US stock and index futures rose as investors speculated companies' earnings prospects and takeovers will help shares more than recoup losses from a global sell-off.

Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures expiring in March added 8.8 to 1,402 as of 9:27 am in London. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures advanced 54 to 12,255. Nasdaq-100 Index futures climbed 12.25 to 1749.75.

US stocks fell yesterday after D R Horton, the nation's second-largest homebuilder, said a year-long housing slump is unlikely to end in 2007 and the Federal Reserve cited slowing growth in several local economies.

Europe

European stocks rallied for a third day, led by Suez and Aegon after the companies reported earnings that exceeded analysts' estimates.

The Stoxx 600 added 0.6 per cent to 363.66 as of 8:45 am in London. The Stoxx 50 climbed 0.5 per cent, and the Euro Stoxx 50, a measure for the 13 nations sharing the euro, increased 0.6 per cent.

National benchmarks advanced in all of the 16 western European markets that were open except Portugal. France's CAC 40 rose 0.5 per cent, while Germany's DAX and UK's FTSE 100 both added 0.4 per cent.

Suez gained 1.4 per cent to 37.34 euros. The world's second-biggest water company reported 2006 net income of 3.6 billion euros ($4.7 billion), beating the median estimate of 3.5 billion in a Bloomberg survey of analysts.

Aegon jumped 3.4 per cent to 15.01 euros. The second-largest Dutch insurer reported fourth-quarter net income of 816 million euros, surpassing the median estimate of 574 million euros in a survey of analysts.

Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest lender, gained 1.2 per cent to 97.97 euros. BNP Paribas, France's biggest bank, rose 1.2 per cent to 79.28 euros.

JPMorgan upgraded Deutsche Bank shares to "neutral'' from "underweight'', and BNP Paribas to "overnight" from "neutral''. Analysts also raised their recommendation on European investment banking stocks to "neutral'', saying recent price declines "overstated'' risks and made the stocks attractive.

BP, Europe's second-largest oil company, increased 1.3 per cent to 523.5 pence. Technip, the second-biggest oil services provider, added 1.2 per cent to 50.3 euros. Royal Dutch Shell, the largest oil company, rose 0.8 per cent to 1,682 pence.