* Aussie dlr at 13-mth high on forecast-beating retail
sales
* South Korean won, Taiwan dollar at near one-year high
* Asian shares gain for second straight quarter
By Umesh Desai
HONG KONG, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Asian shares edged higher on
Wednesday looking past a surprise fall in U.S. consumer
confidence and the Australian dollar jumped to a 13-month high
after August retail sales data beat forecasts.
China's main stock market opened higher boosted by the
acquisition plans of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
(ICBC) <601398.SS>, the world's biggest bank by market value,
while the Korean won <KRW=> rose to a near one-year high.
"GDP and earnings are still being upgraded, valuations are
not horribly expensive and cash is still zero percent, we are
in a sweet spot," said Khiem Do, head of the Asia multi-asset
group at Baring Asset Management.
He expects the stock rally to sustain and corrections to
remain mild for the rest of the year.
Referring to U.S. consumer confidence he said: "It is a
volatile data, next month it may be up again and it is very
difficult to predict. Its not as if its been falling for months
in a a row."
AUSTRALIANS SPEND
The Aussie dollar, which has been on a uptrend after recent
market talk about an imminent rate hike lifted its yield
allure, received a further boost as data showed consumers
continue spending even as the stimulus programme nears its end.
The data took the currency <AUD=> to a peak of $0.8800 and
pushed interest rate swaps <AUDIRS> to a three-week high as
markets priced in a greater chance of a rate increase in
October.
The Shanghai Composite Index <> rose as much as 1
percent after ICBC said it was bidding to buy Thailand's ACL
Bank <ACL.BK> for up to $545 million to tap rapid growth in the
Thai economy and in trade. [].
Yet, the benchmark stock index has lost around 7 percent so
far this quarter and is heading for its worst quarterly
performance this year, mainly reflecting worries about an
oversupply of shares.
South Korea's won currency <KRW=> rose as high as 1,180.1
to a dollar, the strongest since Oct. 14, 2008, forcing foreign
exchange authorities to buy the greenback to curb the won's
strength.
Exporter deals and foreign fund inflows also boosted the
Taiwan dollar <TWD=TP> to a near one-year high. The currency
rose to as high as T$32.198 to the U.S. dollar.
Broadly, Asian stock markets were higher as investors
ignored an unexpected fall in U.S. consumer confidence in
September, which brought down shares at Wall Street.
The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks traded outside Japan
<.MIAPJ0000PUS> was up 0.5 percent and is set to post a second
straight quarterly gain.
The index is up 21 percent this quarter, adding to the
second quarter's 32 percent gains.
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar slipped against the yen <JPY=>
as the recent short-covering, which had given the greenback a
brief boost, abated. The dollar fell 0.3 percent from late New
York levels to 89.77 yen <JPY=>, although it remained above its
eight-month low of 88.23 yen set on Monday.
Traders are not surprised the dollar is reversing track as
the broad downtrend for the U.S. currency is still down.
"It's hard to believe dollar selling is over," said Shuichi
Kanehira, senior vice president of the forex division at Mizuho
Corporate Bank.
(Additional reporting by Rika Otsuka in TOKYO; Editing by Jan
Dahinten)
