Market Report – Asia Soars Up

Today oil and commodity prices pushed most Asian share markets higher… the final trading day of a difficult quarter that saw major equity gains for investors.

A tremendous shift out of safe-haven investments into riskier assets, especially in Asia, drove the regional rally from multi-year lows.

Japan’s Nikkei finished the second quarter up 23 percent, its best performance since 1995, while the MSCI emerging markets index soared 32 percent so far in 2009.

But investors are wary about the third quarter, particularly if higher raw materials prices snuff out a nascent economic and market recovery.

Korea’s Hyundai took aim at gas price uncertainty by offering U.S. customers locked-in fuel prices for a year, hoping to woo anxious car buyers from the sidelines.

Oil’s jump to an eight-month high lifted Sinopec shares in Hong Kong, while China unexpectedly raised domestic gasoline and diesel prices to their highest ever.

Still, Shanghai’s benchmark ended slightly lower, after a 25 percent jump in the quarter and eye-popping 63 percent rise in the first half.

India, the other outperfomer, was also a tad weaker, but soared over 50 percent in H1, most coming after a decisive election victory in May.

(NTDTV)