Asian markets ended higher Wednesday led by Hong Kong shares after Chinese inflation cooled in October and after Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi agreed to resign next week following the approval of austerity measures in a vote in Parliament.
The Nikkei closed up 1.2%. The Shanghai Composite was up 0.8% while the Hang Seng led gains in the region, up 1.7%. The Sensex bucked the trend, ending 1.2% lower while in Sydney the S&P/ASX All Ordinaries gained 1.1%.
Property shares were up in Hong Kong on hopes of possible monetary easing, boosted by Chinese inflation data that showed consumer inflation eased in October for the third month in a row as food and energy price gains softened and wholesale prices also cooled.
Stocks on the Move
Exporters in Tokyo were up after reports of Berlusconi agreeing to step down as investors saw this as a step towards solving the Italian crisis.
Nomura Holdings was up 4.1% but still didn’t recover from the 15% loss in the previous session. Rival Daiwa Securities also gained 4%.
Index heavyweight Sony gained 3.1% while Panasonic and Sharp were up 1.9% and 1.4% each, respectively.
Bellwether Toyota was up 1.6% while Honda Motor advanced 1%. Isuzu Motors was up 4.5% after posting higher profits and raising its full-year guidance on Tuesday.
Olympus shares plunged again and were down 20.4% after saying yesterday its management had covered up losses arising out of securities investments.
Property shares were up in Hong Kong with Agile Property Holdings gaining 4.1% and China Overseas Land & Investment up 3.1%.
In banks, index heavyweight ICBC gained 3.4% while Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Bank of Communications were up 3.7%, 1.4% and 3.9% each, respectively.
Top losers on the Sensex were SBI, down 6.8%, followed by Tata Steel, down 4.1%, and Maruti Suzuki, down 3.8%.
SBI, the country’s top lender, beat estimates with a 12.4% rise in quarterly net profit but a rise in non-performing assets disappointed investors.
Other losers included Hindalco, DLF, Sterlite, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, ONGC and ICICI Bank, all down in a range between 2.2% and 3.7%.
Aussies shares were stronger as resources stocks led the market with the major miners in positive territory.
Index leader BHP Billiton was up 1.5% while fellow miner Rio Tinto rose 1.4%.
In earnings news, Myer first quarter sales fell by 5.1% on a like-for-like basis, but the department store still estimated flat sales for the full financial year.
CSR shares were up 2.1% after the company said it expects its full year operating profit to be at the lower end of the market's expectation range.
In economic news, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released housing finance data for September, which showed a lift in demand for home loans.
