Japanese stocks advance strongly Australian equities also soar

Japanese shares rose strongly this morning and held on to their gains this afternoon. Hong Kong stocks were also showing similar strength.

Both the Hang Seng and the Nikkei indices were up as gains in Wall Street gave Asian markets positive lead from overnight.  

 In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng was trading at its highest level in two weeks as companies from Hutchison Whampoa Ltd and Cheung Kong Holdings reported full year profits that exceeded analyst estimates. 

Hutchison Whampoa, billionaire Li Ka-Shing’s biggest company, jumped 4.4% and Cheung Kong rose 2%. Li & Fung, the largest supplier to retailers including Wal-Mart Stores advanced 4.2%.

In Japan, Solar Power companies saw a rise across the sector as traders bought up stocks. Sharp Corp, Japan’s largest maker of solar panels gained 3.6%. Sanko Metal Industrial Co, which makes rooftop solar panels gained 2.8%. 

In Australia, the local market showed strong determination from the get go this morning and was pushing at more than 1 per cent higher this afternoon.

We saw the price of copper and other base materials rebounded overnight, and this pushed our local mining and resources stocks higher.

The market is quite strong overall – we saw across the board strength since this morning.

Woodside continued to attract buyers and we saw investors still getting into long positions. There is definitely an interest on Woodside despite the fact that there has been no official announcement of any takeover bid at the moment.

It’s good to see some solid strength in the market today, and though volumes are still quite low we are seeing a gradual improvement in trading volume.