Asian stocks rose for a third day, led by energy-related shares, after declining U.S. fuel stockpiles and attempted car bombings in the U.K. lifted the price of crude oil to a 10-month high.
Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Australia's second-largest oil producer, advanced to its highest in a week. Mitsui & Co., a Japanese trading company that generated almost 15 percent of last year's revenue from energy, jumped by the most in two months.
``Terror threats seem to benefit energy shares as the market always seems to tie it back to the Middle East and risks to supply,'' said Shane Oliver, who helps manage the equivalent of $83 billion at AMP Capital Investors in Sydney.
Samsung Heavy Industries Co., the world's second-biggest shipyard, climbed in South Korea after the company won a contract. Japanese machinery makers rose, led by Fanuc Ltd., after the Bank of Japan's quarterly Tankan survey of business sentiment showed companies increased their planned capital spending.
The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia-Pacific Index gained 0.6 percent to 153.84 at 2:35 p.m. in Tokyo, adding to a two-day, 1.3 percent advance. All 10 industry groups advanced.
Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 0.1 percent to 18,148.00, while the broader Topix index added 0.3 percent. Gains were capped after the nation's largest banks raised interest rates on some mortgages, sending shares of property developers lower.
Reliance Communications Ltd. led India's Sensitive Index to a record high. Benchmarks rose elsewhere in the region, except in Australia, Singapore, New Zealand and China, where the CSI 300 Index headed for its longest stretch of losses since December. Hong Kong is closed for a holiday today.
Woodside Gains
U.S. stocks fell on June 29 after attempted car bombings in London and as concern grew that banks face more losses from subprime loans. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 0.2 percent, posting its first monthly decline since February.
Woodside rose 0.8 percent to A$46.11, its highest since June 25. Deutsche Bank AG on June 29 raised its forecast for the stock's price to A$55 from an earlier estimate of A$44.
Singapore Petroleum Co., the city-state's only oil explorer and refiner, added 0.9 percent to S$5.80. PTT Pcl, Thailand's biggest oil company, gained 0.7 percent to 272 baht.
Crude oil for August delivery jumped 1.6 percent in New York on June 29 to $70.68 a barrel, its highest since August. Futures were recently at $70.43 in after-hours trading. The U.S. said its stockpiles of fuel had declined and the U.K. government increased its terrorist threat assessment to ``critical,'' the highest level, after the attempted London bombings.
Mitsui & Co, Samsung Heavy
Mitsui & Co., Japan's second-largest trading company, jumped 3.3 percent to 2,535 yen, the most since May 9. The stock was also rated ``strong outperform'' by Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co. in new coverage.
For trading houses, ``the fundamental outlook continues to be good with all the commodity prices much higher than expected,' said Masafumi Oshiden, a fund manager at BlackRock Japan Co. in Tokyo, whose parent company holds $1.1 trillion in assets.
Samsung Heavy added 2.8 percent to 46,450 won in South Korea after the shipbuilder received a 551.4 billion won ($597 million) contract to build a drill ship for a company in the Americas. Samsung Heavy expects another contract within two days, it said on June 29.
GS Engineering & Construction Corp., the country's third- largest builder by market value, won a contract valued at $185 million to build a chemical plant for Thailand's HMC Polymers Co. The stock jumped 9.1 percent to 120,500 won.
Rates Concern
Fanuc, a maker of industrial robots, rose 1.2 percent to 12,870 yen. Japan Steel Works Ltd., a maker of forged and cast steel products, added 4.3 percent to 1,961 yen.
Large companies in Japan said they'd increase capital spending by 7.7 percent in the year to March 31, while confidence among the bigger manufacturers was unchanged at 23 points in June from March and near December's two-year high of 25, the Tankan showed.
Mitsubishi Estate Co., Japan's No. 1 developer by market value, slid 1.5 percent to 3,300 yen. Mitsui Fudosan Co., the second biggest, declined 1.7 percent to 3,400 yen.
The main banking units of companies including Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and Mizuho Financial Group Inc. raised rates on mortgage loans starting from this month. The banks added 0.25 percentage point to new loans with 10-year fixed rates.
``The concern for property companies is that interest rates will rise unexpectedly or sharply, and if that happens, we'll see some negative effects on their earnings,'' said Kiyoshi Ishigane who helps oversee $61 billion in assets at Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. in Tokyo.
India, China
India's Sensitive Index climbed 0.6 percent, surpassing the previous intraday record of 14,723.88 set on Feb. 9.
Reliance Communications, the nation's second-biggest mobile- phone services company, gained 2.3 percent to 529.10 rupees. Morgan Stanley raised its earnings forecast for the year ending March 31, 2008, by 13 percent, saying higher subscriber additions will boost profits. It raised its price estimate by 16 percent to 655 rupees.
Bharti Airtel Ltd., India's largest wireless-services company, climbed 0.8 percent to 843 rupees. Morgan raised the stock's price forecast by 5 percent to 1,056 rupees a share.
China's CSI 300 dropped 2.8 percent, extending a two-day, 6.8 percent tumble. The measure is set for its first three-day slump since a similar period in December.
About 147,317 new accounts were set up June 28 for investing in mainland shares and mutual funds, compared with a daily average of 271,000 for last month and about 440,000 in May, according to the China Securities Depository & Clearing Corp.
``Investors are being put off by the recent decline in equities, as seen by the slowdown in account openings,'' said Wu Kan, an analyst at Shanghai Securities Consulting Co. in Shanghai. ``There are expectations of less liquidity inflow.''
Citic Securities Co., China's most profitable brokerage, lost 5.8 percent to 49.90 yuan. China Merchants Bank Co., the seventh- largest lender, slid 4.8 percent to 23.39 yuan.
source:bloomberg.com
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