Asian stocks rise on US, EU confidence

Tokyo's Nikkei index closed up 0.82 percent, or 73.79 points, at 9,098.39, led by trading companies such as Sumitomo Corporation and Mitsubishi Corporation, as well as exporters including Canon and Mazda. The Topix index of first-section shares was up 0.71 percent.

Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 index closed up 0.99 percent, or 45 points, at 4,582.2, Hong Kong rose 0.37 percent, or 78.41 points, to 21,167.27 and Seoul ended up 0.29 percent, or 5.14 points, at 1,784.36. Manila surged 2.57 percent, or 97.83 points, to a record high of 3,902.56.

However Shanghai closed down 1.44 percent, or 38.94 points, at 2,656.35 as worries persisted about possible further steps to rein in the property market and tighten bank regulation.

Markets generally were lifted by a rise on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve's Beige Book showed the U.S. economy continued growing from mid-July to the end of August, albeit “with widespread signs of a deceleration”.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.45 percent, the broader S&P 500 index 0.64 percent and the Nasdaq 0.90 percent.

Improved sentiment in Europe also helped after a successful sovereign bond issue by debt-saddled Portugal.

Despite recent U.S. jitters, “there continues to be this sense of relief that the (US) economy doesn't appear to be heading back into recession — at least not right away,” David Taylor, a market analyst at CMC Markets, told Dow Jones Newswires.

“This, combined with more tax cuts and infrastructure spending plans by the Obama administration, (put) traders in the mood to buy up.”.

However, Tokyo's gains were limited by concerns about the strength of the yen.

The Japanese currency was trading at 83.75 yen to the dollar in the afternoon, up from 83.92 in New York on Wednesday, having touched a 15-year high of 83.33 in Tokyo on Wednesday. The yen was at 106.28 to the euro, up from 106.73, while the euro dropped to US$1.2695 from US$1.2718 in New York.

Australian shares were lifted by data showing unemployment had fallen 0.2 percentage points to 5.1 percent in August, beating expectations, although this raised the chances of an interest rate hike as soon as next month.

The stock market rise came despite regulators rejecting National Australia Bank's US$12.2-billion bid for financial services firm AXA Asia Pacific due to competition concerns. AXA Asia Pacific closed down 6.62 percent.

Traders in Seoul brushed off a decision by South Korea's central bank to leave interest rates unchanged for a second straight month, amid heightened uncertainty about the global economy.

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