Most Asian stocks markets rise after some US economic indicators show slight improvement

Asia stocks rise on slight improvement in US data

BEIJING — Most Asian stock markets climbed Friday as investors took heart from a slight improvement in U.S. economic indicators amid lingering worries over the pace of the global economic recovery.

Gains were modest across the region as investors waited for U.S. employment figures due out later Friday. August’s jobless rate is expected to rise to 9.6 percent from 9.5 percent in July, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson Reuters.

Global markets have tumbled the past month as doubts surfaced about the strength of the global recovery. But investors have recently been encouraged by pledges from the U.S. Federal Reserve and China’s central bank to provide credit if needed to support economic expansion, said strategist Peng Yunliang at Shanghai Securities.

“The two largest economies are in policy expansions, so all East Asian benchmarks will be higher in the next few weeks,” Peng said. Still, he said, enthusiasm was tempered because “the economy in the United States is not as strong as expected.”

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index rose 51.29 points, or 0.6 percent, to 9,114.13 and South Korea’s Kospi edged up 0.2 percent to 1,780.02. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index added 0.2 percent to 20,919.98.

China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed flat at 2,655.39, though tech stocks surged on a government announcement of plans to support development of clean energy and other fields.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.2 percent to 4,541.20. Markets in New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan also advanced. India’s Sensex was flat at 18,249.50.

In New York on Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average added 50.63 points, or 0.5 percent, to 10,320.10.

Sentiment on Wall Street turned upbeat after the National Association of Realtors said Thursday that the number of buyers who signed contracts to purchase homes rose 5.2 percent in July after hitting a record low in June.

A fall in new claims for U.S. unemployment aid last week also helped lift sentiment. The Labor Department said Thursday that the number of American people requesting jobless benefits fell by 6,000 the previous week to a seasonally adjusted 472,000.

The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure, also fell by 2,500 to 485,500, the first drop after four straight increases. But even with the declines, U.S. jobless claims are still at much higher levels than they would be in a healthy economy.

When economic output is growing rapidly and employers are hiring, such claims generally drop below 400,000.

In currencies, the dollar fell to 84.18 yen in Tokyo from 84.26 yen in New York late Thursday. The euro was flat at $1.2820.

Benchmark oil for October delivery was down 43 cents at $74.58 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.11 to settle at $75.02 a barrel on Thursday.