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Asia: Markets track US gains

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Date: Friday 02 May 2008

LONDON (ShareCast) - Asian markets were posting good gains, tracking the stellar performance of Wall Street.

In Japan, banking shares tracked gains from their US counterparts, while the softer yen gave exporters such as Advantest a boost.

Real estate stocks were also doing well. Property firm Sumitomo Realty & Development rose after a newspaper said profits were expected to beat forecasts.

On the downside, Japan Tobacco expects full year profits to be down 28% due to an accounting change, while a broker downgrade did not help the stock either.

Hong Kong posted also posted good gains after yesterday's Labour Day holiday.

Oil companies did well on lower crude prices while property firms gained after the interest rate was cut.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s decision Friday to drop the base rate charged through its overnight discount window by 25 basis points helped Sino Land advance.

Across the markets, the Nikkei rose 2.05% while the Hong Kong Hang Seng finished up 1.89%.