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By Rafael Nam
HONG KONG, April 21 (Reuters) - Asian shares rose to their
highest in more than seven weeks on Monday as financial firms
gained on hopes for a turning point in the credit crisis, which
also boosted the dollar.
The U.S. currency was near its highest level to the yen
since early March, providing relief for the region's exporters,
with the sector further comforted by stronger-than-expected
quarterly results from U.S. firms such as Caterpillar <CAT.N>.
But oil prices hovered near a record $117 a barrel hit on
Friday amid concerns of supply disruptions in Nigeria and
comments by OPEC that it saw no need to increase production.
Gold rebounded after the previous session's sell-off.
"The market is clearly trying to say that the worst of all
these subprime and credit issues are now out, so we can move
on," said Greg Goodsell, equity strategist at ABN AMRO.
"But it remains to be seen whether that is really the case.
It's hard to be conclusive that there aren't further write-offs
out there in the financial sector."
The MSCI measure of Asian stocks excluding Japan
<.MIAPJ0000PUS> rose 2.5 percent by 0420 GMT, earlier hitting
its highest level since Feb. 29.
That marked a substantial recovery for an index that just
last month hit its lowest since August 2007, when credit
concerns first began surfacing.
The turnaround came as forecast-beating earnings from
Merrill Lynch <MER.N> and JPMorgan Chase <JPM.N> last week
sparked hope the worst of the credit crisis may soon be over.
Citigroup Inc <C.N> on Friday posted a $5.1 billion
quarterly loss and said it will cut another 9,000 jobs, but its
shares still gained amid expectations that the top U.S. lender
was taking steps to move past its credit problems.
[]
Also on Friday, results from diversified U.S. manufacturer
Honeywell International Inc <HON.N> and construction and mining
equipment maker Caterpillar beat expectations. []
and []
BANKS' HOUSECLEANING
Tokyo's Nikkei average <> rose 1.5 percent, led by
financials such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group <8306.T> and
exporters such as Honda Motor Co Ltd <7267.T>, which stand to
benefit from a weaker yen.
Indexes in Hong Kong <>, Australia <> and
Singapore <.FTSTI> gained over 2 percent each, while stocks in
South Korea <> and Shanghai <> gained more than 1
percent each.
"Although big losses were reported from U.S. banks,
investors are taking them more as cleaning up the subprime
mess, and expect the banks to improve from there," said Lee
Sun-yeob, a market analyst at Goodmorning Shinhan Securities in
Seoul.
The improving confidence in the financial sector also
lifted the dollar by 0.2 percent to 103.93 <JPY=>, near a
seven-week high of 104.66 hit on electronic trade platform EBS
on Friday.
The euro <EUR=> was steady at $1.5815 <EUR=>, off a record
high of $1.5985 hit last week.
The euro zone currency has jumped over 8 percent against
the dollar this year as investors have been attracted by its
yield appeal on expectations European interest rates will stay
put, while the Federal Reserve is seen cutting U.S. rates
further.
Oil prices steadied at $116.64 a barrel, near the prior
session's record $117, after a Nigerian rebel group said on
Friday it had sabotaged a major oil pipeline operated by Royal
Dutch Shell <RDSa.L>. []
Crude was also supported after the president of the
Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) told
reporters the group saw no need to raise oil production.
[]
But spot gold <XAU=> rebounded to around $922 an ounce,
after falling on Friday to as low as $904.35 when investors
dumped safe-haven assets to add riskier assets such as stocks.
Asian bonds eased, with Japanese June 10-year futures
<2JGBv1> dipping 0.15 point to 138.45, touching earlier a
seven-week low of 138.26.
(Editing by Ian Geoghegan and Anshuman Daga)
