Asian stocks rise after positive news from Japan

Asian stock markets rose today as data showed the economy of earthquake-battered Japan shrank less than expected.

Oil prices hovered above 85 dollars a barrel as investor worries began to ease after Wall Street closed in positive territory on Friday after a dizzying week of sharp gains and losses. The dollar rose against the yen but lost ground against the euro.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index was 1.4% higher at 9,090.28 after the government announced that the economy had contracted at an annualised rate of 1.3% in the April-June quarter.

While that was the third straight quarter of contraction for the world’s third-largest economy, it was better than the 2.6% fall forecast in a Kyodo News agency survey of analysts.

A modest weakening of the yen helped Japan’s export sector. Toyota rose 2.4% while rival Honda was up 2.8%. Consumer electronics giant Sony rose 3.7%.

Video game maker Nintendo, meanwhile, soared 9.7% on media reports that the Tokyo Stock Exchange is considering acquiring the Osaka Securities Exchange. Such a merger would help companies listed on both exchanges by reducing costs. Osaka-listed Nintendo also hopes to become a component of the Nikkei 225 index, according to media reports.

Japan’s economy was thrown into a tailspin on March 11 when a huge earthquake and tsunami wiped away much of the country’s industrial north-east. Entire towns were washed away. Infrastructure, utilities and factories vital to production were destroyed.

Analysts at DBS Bank in Singapore said the smaller-than-expected contraction in Japan’s economy was positive news spurred by the restoration of infrastructure, an improvement in sentiment and the release of pent-up demand.

“A significant positive growth will soon be reflected” in the third quarter, DBS said in a report.

However, Castor Pang, head of research at Core Pacific-Yamaichi in Hong Kong, said whatever relief was reaped from Japan’s GDP figures was outweighed by fears that Europe’s debt problems were about to blow up.

Nevertheless, Asian banks are mostly isolated from the storm since their exposure to toxic European debt was thought to be limited, he said.

“Their proportions in euro bonds do not seem large enough for them to face insolvency problems,” he said.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world’s biggest bank by market value, rose 1.4%. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the nation’s largest lender, was 1.2% higher.

Elsewhere, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shot up 2.8% to 20,169.86. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines and mainland China were also higher. South Korea’s market was closed for a public holiday.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 jumped 2.3% to 4,268.70. BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company, gained 4.5%. Another mining giant, Rio Tinto, jumped 4.4%. Energy Resources of Australia was 4.7% higher.

A rebound in retail sales in July pushed Wall Street higher on Friday, the first time since early July that the Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 index rose for two consecutive days.

Global markets fluctuated wildly last week as investors already concerned over Europe’s worsening debt crisis were further rattled by signs the US might be headed toward recession.

The US Federal Reserve last week signalled that it would keep interest rates super-low for two more years because of expectations that unemployment will remain high and economic growth slow.

The Fed’s decision came after the government said the US economy had barely expanded in the first six months of this year.

Benchmark oil for September delivery was up 5 cents to 85.43 dollars a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude fell 34 cents to settle at 85.38 dollars on Thursday.

In London, Brent crude was up 9 cents to $108.12 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

The euro strengthened to $1.4300 from $1.4245 late on Friday in New York.

The dollar rose to 76.94 Japanese yen from 76.75