US techs give Nikkei a boost

ASIAN stocks vaulted ahead today, propelled by renewed belief in the great American revival. Technology stocks soared after Nasdaq's overnight 4% surge, which followed some good earnings figures and a solid 1.2% rise in US consumer sales in April. That reignited hopes that demand for computers, telecoms equipment and components was set to rebound.

In Japan motor manufacturers were among the fastest movers as the US figures showed car sales were running 1.9% ahead of a year ago, and with computer-related stocks also on fire, the Nikkei 225 Average soared by 286.78 points to 11,642.97.

The powerful US demand for cars has already been reflected in bumper sales and profits from Japanese carmakers, and today the impact was shown by a 52% jump to 2.2 trillion yen (£11.8bn) in the country's current account surplus to its highest since March 1993.

Carmakers' stocks responded with sharp gains, led by Mazda Motor, Japan's third-largest manufacturer, which rose 3.4% after it forecast that profits in the current year would double to 20bn yen. In the year to end-March, the company made 8.8bn yen, after losing a record 155bn yen the previous year. Mazda's results bolster the recent healthy profit figures from Toyota and Nissan, which underlined the impact of the weaker yen on Japan's export competitiveness.

Telecoms giant Nippon Telegraph & Telephone bounded 4% as investors judged that record losses revealed yesterday had the bad news on the table.

The better export outlook lifted shares of consumer electronics giant Sony, which rose almost 2%, and also shared in the euphoria that gripped recently listless technology stocks around the region.

Chip and equipment makers rocketed by up to 6% in Tokyo, and also led Taiwan and South Korea's markets sharply ahead. Taiwan shook off an early-morning earthquake, and the Weighted Average jumped 134.65 to 5890.57, a 2.3% gain, but was left behind by South Korea's Kospi index which crammed on more than 3% with a rise of 25.55 points to 862.92. The region's technology prospects were also seen to have brightened following an overnight report from US semiconductor equipment giant Applied Materials that orders were running 51% ahead of a year ago.

A lively performance in export stocks and from HSBC Holdings, up 75 cents to HK$97.25, helped lift Hong Kong's Hang Seng index by 141.49 points to 11,831.80 but the top movers were China plays. A strong 12% rise in China's industrial output in April triggered gains of up to 4% among Hong Kong stocks with big exposure to the mainland market.

In Australia, News Corp shares surged 10% as investors chose to look at brighter earnings prospects rather than fret about one-off write-downs which pushed the group into a US$4bn (£2.75bn) third-quarter loss. The All Ordinaries bounced up 112.4 to 3375.5.

Singapore investors took a more cautious view of the apparent US rebound, and while chip stocks gained, the Straits Times index rose a modest 4.77 to 1747.02. The Kuala Lumpur Composite was up 0.90 at 786.41 and the Composite in Jakarta added 1.58 to 540.20, but Thailand's SET index slipped 0.64 to 381.45.

Prices and indices in this section are supplied from various sources and calculated at different times and may not always match those listed in the tables.