Asian stocks rose, driving the MSCI Asia Pacific Index higher for a second straight day, after Apple reported better-than-estimated earnings and commodity prices advanced.
Samsung, which supplies semiconductor chips for Apple products, increased 1.8 per cent in Seoul. BHP Billiton Ltd., the world's No. 1 mining company, jumped 1.8 per cent in Sydney as a growth in US building permits boosted copper prices. LG Chem Ltd. rallied 3.4 per cent in Seoul after reporting record quarterly profit.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 0.4 per cent to 115.88. Five stocks rose for every three that fell. The gauge has slumped 10 per cent from this year's high on April 15 as Europe's debt crisis and China's steps to curb property prices fueled concern that global economic growth will slow. Speculation the US economy will contract intensified as reports pointed to a retreat in manufacturing and home sales.
''We've been buying as the market has been oversold,'' said Diane Lin, a Sydney-based fund manager at Pengana Capital. ''We're still very cautious. Overall US economic growth will decelerate but there will be pockets of growth, particularly in the technology sector as reflected by Apple's strong results.''
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index advanced 0.8 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 0.2 per cent. South Korea's Kospi index climbed 0.5 per cent. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index added 0.4 per cent.
Iron ore
Futures on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 0.2 per cent. The gauge climbed 1.1 per cent yesterday on speculation the Federal Reserve will take steps to spur lending and after a government report showed building permits, a gauge of future construction, rose 2.1 per cent last month.
BHP Billiton, which today reported a 16 per cent increased in fourth-quarter iron-ore production, rose 1.8 per cent to $38.98. Copper futures in London rose 0.2 per cent, extending yesterday's 2 per cent climb, after the report on US building permits bolstered prospects for metals demand.
Rio Tinto Group, the world's third-largest mining company, jumped 2.5 per cent to $68.15. Jiangxi Copper, China's largest producer of the metal, climbed 3 per cent to HK$15.96 in Hong Kong.
''The global economy is slowing down, but concern about a double-dip recession is fading,'' said Hiroichi Nishi, an equities manager in Tokyo at Nikko Cordial Securities.
Best performers
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index has declined 3.8 per cent this year, cutting the average price of stocks in the gauge to 14 times estimated earnings, near the lowest level since December 2008. That compares with 13.2 times for the S&P 500 Index and 11.5 times for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index.
Measures of raw-material producers, energy and technology companies in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced the most of the broader gauge's 10 industry groups.
Samsung Electronics jumped 1.8 per cent to 812,000 won. Companies tied to Apple climbed after the US company posted a 78 per cent surge in third-quarter profit to $3.25 billion, or $3.51 a share, as customers flocked to the new iPad tablet computer and latest version of the iPhone. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast per-share profit of $3.11.
Softbank, the exclusive provider of the iPhone in Japan, gained 1 per cent to 2511 yen in Tokyo, while Taiwan's Catcher Technology climbed 2.6 per cent to NT$78.5. Catcher supplies metal parts for the iPhone, according to Yuanta Securities.
LG Chem, a maker of chemicals that also supplies iPhone batteries, gained 3.4 per cent to 332,500 won after quarterly profit jumped to a record on Chinese demand for materials used to make plastics and synthetic rubber.