US job data fuel Asia stocks

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian stocks rose to a six-week high, led by Toyota Motor Corp, after a drop in the US unemployment rate eased concern the region's exports will slow.

The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia-Pacific Index added 0.6 per cent to 147.07 at 7:31 pm in Tokyo, the highest since February 27. Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average advanced 1.5 per cent. All markets gained, except in Thailand. Benchmarks in South Korea, Singapore and China climbed to records.

Toyota, the world's largest automaker by value, rose 1.9 per cent to 7,540 yen. Sony Corp, the maker of the PlayStation 3 game console, jumped 3.9 per cent to 6,440 yen. Toyota generated more than a third of its financial year 2006 revenue in North America, while Sony made 70 per cent of its sales overseas last year.

Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, the world's third-largest custom-chip maker, added 2.1 per cent to S$1.47 in Singapore. Infosys Technologies, India's second-largest software exporter, rose 2.6 per cent to Rs 2,044. High Tech Computer Corp, the world's biggest maker by volume of handsets based on Microsoft Corp's Windows operating system, climbed 2.4 per cent to NT$518 in Taiwan.

Japanese stocks also gained after the yen weakened against the dollar and the euro, increasing the value of exporters' overseas sales when converted back into yen. Komatsu, the world's second-largest maker of construction machinery, climbed 4.3 per cent to 2,570 yen.

The yen weakened to 119.31 against the dollar in New York, the lowest since February 26. Japan's currency fell to a record intra-day low of 159.69 versus the euro. The yen recently changed hands at 119.29 per dollar and 159.44 to the euro.

US

US stocks and index futures advanced after employers added more jobs than analysts forecast last month and a newspaper said Dow Chemical Co may become the largest leveraged buyout target ever.

The Labor Department said April 6 that 180,000 new jobs were created in March and the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell. US stock exchanges have been closed during the three days since the data were published.

The increase in March payrolls followed a 113,000 gain in February. Economists predicted 130,000 jobs would be added last month, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures expiring in June added 5.4 to 1,457.1 as of 8:03 am in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures surged 47 to 12,669. Nasdaq-100 Index futures gained 9.75 to 1838.