Reuters
Published Oct 23, 2009 02:39AM ET
* Asia shares rise, buoyed by upbeat earnings
* Dollar resumes slide to 14-mth lows on U.S. rate outlook
* British pound hits one-month high ahead of UK GDP data
* European stock futures up 1 pct (Repeats to more subscribers)
By Susan Fenton
HONG KONG, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Asian shares rose on Friday as investors were encouraged by upbeat earnings reports from the United States and Asia while the dollar resumed a broad slide after a Fed official indicated U.S. rates would remain low.
European stock futures STXEc1 gained 1 percent while U.S. equity futures SPc1 edged up 0.2 percent.
The British pound
"After (Bank of England Governor Mervyn) King's recent bullish comments, if GDP is good, that will help sterling," said Kazuyuki Kato, treasury department manager at Mizuho Trust & Banking in Tokyo.
"But the pace of sterling's gains will likely moderate as speculator short-covering nears its end."
Minutes from the Bank of England and comments from its governor have encouraged views that it may not extend its 175 billion pound ($290.8 billion) quantitative easing next month, although another BOE policy maker threw that back into doubt on Thursday. [ID:nLM718452]
Shanghai's benchmark share index <.SSEC> was up 2 percent as a government researcher said China's mighty export sector was likely to resume year-on-year growth this quarter. [ID:nPEK290236]
Bullish earnings in the United States from 3M Co
DOLLAR VULNERABLE
Shares in South Korea rose 0.6 percent, helped by a 6.7
percent surge in Kia Motors Corp <000270.KS> after the
country's No. 2 car maker said it swung to a record quarterly
profit, helped by a weaker won
Hynix Semiconductor Inc <000660.KS>, the world's No. 2 memory chip maker, announced a quarterly profit after seven quarterly losses. Its stock however has already nearly trebled this year and dipped 0.3 percent.
The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks traded outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> was up 1.3 percent while the Thomson Reuters index of regional shares STXEc1 was 1.5 percent higher.
Shares in Japan finished up just 0.2 percent but exporters
like electronics giant Sony Corp <6758.T> gained on a weaker
yen
The dollar hit a 15-month low against the Swiss franc
"The dollar looks vulnerable to a short, brutal move to the spring 2008 lows," said David Watt, senior currency strategist at RBC Capital in Australia.
The euro
Gold
Shares in Hong Kong were up 1.5 percent by midday, helped
by a 1.4 percent rise in global bank HSBC <0005.HK>, which said
on Thursday it would almost double its stake in Vietnam
insurance and financial firm Bao Viet
Written By: Reuters
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