* Risk appetite revived as geopolitical tensions ease
* Oil holds near 10-week lows, dollar slips
* Copper back above $10,000 a tonne
(Updates prices)
By Ian Chua
SYDNEY, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Asian stocks rose on Monday as
investors greeted news of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's
resignation with relief, while U.S. crude steadied near $85.50
per barrel after falling to 10-week lows as geopolitical
tensions eased for now.
Mubarak handed power over to the army, bowing to escalating
pressure from the military and protesters demanding he goes. His
departure was seen partially reviving investors' appetite for
risk.
This also helped copper climbed above $10,000 a tonne
, while the dollar came under some pressure.
The Nikkei climbed 0.8 percent after data showed
Japan's economy shrank slightly in the final quarter of last
year but beat forecasts for a bigger contraction. Analysts
expect a recovery this year on stronger exports to China and
other parts of fast-growing Asia.
"What with good corporate earnings, the resignation of
Mubarak and other helpful factors, the investment environment is
good," said Yoshihiro Ito, chief strategist at Okasan Online
Securities.
Stocks elsewhere in Asia gained 1.2 percent
with Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index up 1.0 percent. South
Korea's KOSPI , Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index and
China's Shanghai Composite index were all more than 1
percent higher.
Talk of slower-than-expected inflation in China, a day ahead
of the official release, also helped shore up the Chinese
market.
Traders said the consumer price index may have risen 4.9
percent in the year to January, well below the consensus
forecast of 5.3 percent.
Last week, the MSCI Asia Pacific equity index, excluding
Japan, fell 2.65 percent, suffering its biggest weekly drop
since Aug. 2010.
Questions over whether officials in emerging economies will
succeed in tackling inflation have prompted investors to pull
out some $3 billion from Emerging Markets Equity Funds tracked
by EPFR Global in the week ended Feb. 9.
This marked a third straight week of outflows and was the
worst three-week run in three years, the fund tracker said.
But Japanese equities, which lagged the region last year,
saw some of the best inflows. Japan still has a low
price-to-book ratio of 1.2, according to Thomson Reuters
StarMine, among the most attractive in Asia. This compares with
2.0 for Hong Kong and 2.5 for Australia.
"Investors are seeing value in Japanese exporters geared to
fast growing regional emerging markets where the yen's value
versus the dollar is not an issue. Inflation is also not an
issue for the world's third largest economy," the fund tracker
said.
The dollar slipped against the euro and the yen. Traders
said Japanese exporters have been active sellers of the
greenback, taking advantage of the dollar's rise to three-week
highs late last week.
The dollar index , which tracks the greenback's
performance against a basket of major currencies, slipped 0.14
percent.
U.S. crude oil was a touch firmer at $85.60, but
still not far off a 10-week low of $85.10 plumbed last Friday.
Spot gold was little changed at $1,357.20 an ounce.
(Additional reporting by Taiga Uranaka in Tokyo; Editing by
Daniel Magnowski)
