Asian Stocks Climb as Aussie Rises After China Data 

Asian stocks climbed for a sixth day, led by Japanese shares, while the Australian dollar rose to a one-month high after Chinese trade data exceeded estimates. Gold slid, halting a five-day gain, and South Korea’s won strengthened.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 1 percent as of 11:19 a.m. in Tokyo, where the Topix Index rose 1.5 percent after being closed yesterday for a holiday. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures were little changed after the gauge capped its biggest four-day gain in more than a year. A gauge of Chinese shares in Hong Kong climbed 0.9 percent and the Aussie reversed early losses against most peers. The won gained 0.6 percent versus the greenback. Spot gold fell 0.4 percent and natural gas jumped 4 percent.
Chinese exports jumped 10.6 percent in January from a year earlier, eclipsing an estimate for a 0.1 percent gain, while imports rose 10 percent and the country’s trade surplus widened to $31.86 billion. U.S. economic growth has picked up and the central bank will continue to scale back stimulus in “measured steps,” Federal Reserve ChairmanJanet Yellen said yesterday. The U.S. House of Representatives voted to suspend the country’s debt limit until March 2015.
“Chinese trade data came in much better than expected,” Dariusz Kowalczyk, a Hong Kong-based strategist at Credit Agricole CIB, said in a note today. “The data suggests that growth slowdown was not as bad as feared. The numbers are positive for risk globally.”
About four stocks rose for each that fell on the Asia-Pacific gauge, with nine of ten industry groups advancing. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 0.6 percent, while the CSI 300 Index of mainland Chinese shares slipped 0.2 percent. South Korea’s Kospi index increased 0.4 percent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index added 0.6 percent. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index gained 0.6 percent.
Federal Open Market Committee officials have twice reduced the size of the monthly asset-purchase program, lowering bond buying to $65 billion in February from $85 billion last year. Also in the U.S., the House of Representatives voted to suspend the U.S. debt limit until March 2015, giving a win to President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress who insisted that the ceiling be lifted without conditions.
“Markets have been oversold recently as concerns about emerging markets were a bit overblown,” Nader Naeimi, the Sydney-based head of dynamic asset allocation at AMP Capital Investors, which manages $131 billion, said by phone. “Yellen sounded quite dovish, which is what investors wanted to hear. While things are improving, she acknowledged that that the U.S. recovery is still not strong enough, suggesting monetary policy will remain easy. It’s good news that the U.S. debt ceiling debate is out of the way.”