2014.03.3104:49:13UTC+00Asian Stocks Advance for 4th Day

Asian stocks jump, with the regional benchmark marching toward for its fourth consecutive daily increase, as consumer shares led escalates.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index jumped 0.4 percent to 137.22 as of 10:54 a.m. in Tokyo. Japan's Topix index upgraded 0.3 percent as the yen held last week’s declines against the dollar and even as data displayed industrial production surprisingly sagged down 2.3 percent in February from January. A three percentage-point sales-tax climbed takes effect in Japan tomorrow.

The regional benchmark index relinquished 0.8 percent this month and 3.3 percent this year through last week as investors weighed the crisis in Ukraine, with gauges in Japan and Hong Kong retreating the most among developed markets. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen speaks in Chicago today as investors await payrolls data due later in the week to evaluate the status for U.S. interest rates.

“Shares have rebounded a bit recently after falling too much due to the Ukraine situation.” said Masaru Hamasaki, a senior strategist at Tokyo-based Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Co., which manages about 11 trillion yen ($107 billion) in assets. “Things haven’t deteriorated further, giving a sense of relief to the market.”

Eclat Textile Co. surge 6.8 percent in Taiwan, the most among the MSCI Asia Pacific Index group tracking consumer discretionary shares. China Construction Bank Corp., the nation’s second-biggest lender by market worth, march higher with 1.1 percent after recording an earning development that topped assumptions. Mazda Motor Corp., a Japanese automaker that gets about 30 percent of its revenue in North America, hike 3.6 percent.

Regional Gauges

South Korea’s Kospi index was slightly altered as North Korea said it may conduct a “new form” of nuclear test if the U.S. challenges its efforts to enhance deterrence through military actions. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index bolstered 0.8 percent and New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index backslide 0.1 percent. Taiwan’s Taiex index was moved a little and Singapore’s Straits Times Index increased 0.3 percent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of mainland shares exchanged in the city both advance less than 0.1 percent, while the Shanghai Composite Index decline 0.2 percent.

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index recorded a 0.3 percent increase today. The measure climbed 0.5 percent on March 28 as consumer shares bounced back in the middle of data showing household purchases advance in February by the most in three months.

Household purchases, which account for almost 70 percent of the U.S. economy, escalated 0.3 percent after a 0.2 percent hike in January that was smaller than previously projected, Commerce Department numbers displayed.

China Manufacturing

An official purchasing managers’ index of Chinese manufacturing due tomorrow is calculated to decline to 50.1 for March from 50.2 in February, a Bloomberg survey of economists shows. Levels above 50 signals expansion. HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics Ltd. also publish the final reading on their China manufacturing PMI for March tomorrow, after preliminary numbers signifies a third month of contraction in the sector.

“All eyes will be on U.S. and global activity data culminating in U.S. payrolls Friday,” Mark Smith, a senior economist in Auckland at ANZ Bank New Zealand Ltd., wrote in a client note e-mailed today. “We expect stronger market reaction to U.S. data strength than we do to U.S. data weakness.”

The Asia-Pacific gauge exchanged at 12.4 times computed profits as of March 28 compared with 15.9 for the S&P 500 and 14.6 for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, based from the data recorded by Bloomberg.