Sunday, November 18, 2007

Asian Stocks Rise; Mitsubishi UFJ, BHP Billiton Lead the Gain

Nov. 19 -- Asian stocks rose for the first time in three days. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan's biggest publicly traded bank, led gains amid speculation the country's shares are cheap relative to returns on bonds.

``From a valuation perspective shares are attractive with the dividend yield above bonds,'' said Norihiro Fujito, a senior strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co. in Tokyo.

BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group led gains among commodity producers after copper and oil prices climbed on Nov. 16. Separately, BHP's chief executive officer said the majority of the Rio Tinto and BHP shareholders he has met support a plan to combine the two companies.

The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia Pacific Index gained 0.7 percent to 159.42 as of 10:08 a.m. in Tokyo. Eight of 10 industry groups advanced on the measure, which slid 2.5 percent in the previous two days.

Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average added 0.5 percent to 15,236.29. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index climbed 1.3 percent. Key indexes in South Korea and New Zealand were little changed.

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