Asian Stocks Rise On Stimulus Measure Hopes

By Bhaskar Prasad | July 17 2012 12:29 AM

Asian markets rose Tuesday amid hopes that central banks all over the world would soon announce stimulus measures to tackle the weakening global economy.

REUTERS

An investor checks stock information with a computer at a brokerage house in Hefei, Anhui province Feb. 20, 2012.

Sponsorship Link

The Chinese Shanghai Composite rose 0.72 percent or 15.57 points to 2163.53. Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 1.58 percent or 302.62 points to 19423.96. Major gainers were Sino Land Co Ltd (3.04 percent) and CNOOC Ltd (2.65 percent).

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.58 percent or 50.40 points to 8774.52. Among major gainers were Astellas Pharma Inc (3.21 percent), Olympus Corp (3.11 percent) and Daiwa Securities Group Inc (2.58 percent).

South Korea’s KOSPI Composite Index rose 0.53 percent or 9.72 points to 1827.51. Shares of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd climbed 1.22 percent and shares of Hyundai Motor Co declined 2.19 percent.

India's BSE Sensex rose 0.69 percent or 117.25 points to 17220.56. Major gainers were Axis Bank Ltd (1.29 percent), Wipro Ltd (0.91 percent) and ICICI Bank (0.79 percent).

Market sentiment was positive as investors sensed that central banks could announce monetary easing measures to strengthen the global economy. The U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will deliver his semi-annual report to the Congress Tuesday.

Market players are hoping for a U.S. Fed announcement of a monetary stimulus policy in the face of intensifying pressures on the economy. Last month, Bernanke underlined that the Fed remained prepared to take action as needed to protect the U.S. financial system if financial stresses were to escalate.

Investors are also hopeful of monetary easing measures from China as data released last week by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that China’s gross domestic product grew at 7.6 percent in the second quarter of 2012 compared to the same period the earlier year, which is the slowest in three years.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its global growth forecast for 2013 to 3.9 percent from the 4.1 percent predicted earlier in April. The IMF noted that the escalation of the euro area crisis will further worsen global economic growth. This has raised market players' expectations that policy makers in Europe will ensure implementation of measures to rejuvenate euro zone economy and support growth.