YEREVAN, June 10. /ARKA/. Asian shares gained on Monday in late morning session, with Japanese stocks rebounding sharply, after a report showed the US added more workers than expected and Japan revised up its first-quarter growth.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 1.2% to 132 at 10:55 a.m. in Tokyo, the biggest gain since 20 May. The Nikkei average soared 3.1%, after dropping as much as 2.8% and temporarily entering bear market territory on Friday. Shares rose after the US dollar extended its gains against the yen to above 98 yen earlier on Monday, having briefly fallen below 95 to a fresh two-month low on Friday.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.2%. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index advanced 0.6%. South Korea’s Kospi index rose 0.3%. Markets in Australia and China are shut for holidays.
Stocks also rose after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday said the government will unveil its second growth strategy after the upper house election next month.
Japan’s GPIF, which had 112 trillion yen under management as of 31 December, said that it will cut its holdings of local bonds and buy more equities.
US employers took on 175,000 workers in May, the Labour Department reported on Friday. That’s more than the 163,000 estimate in a Bloomberg survey.
Toyota Motor Corp., the No. 1 global carmaker, gained 5.8%. Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings Ltd., a shoemaker that gets 29% of its revenue in the US, rose 2% in Hong Kong.
Sharp Corp. jumped 13% after Qualcomm Inc. agreed to a second share purchase in the unprofitable Japanese TV maker. –0–
