Asian shares buoyed by brisk US factory activity data

By Hideyuki Sano

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares advanced on Friday morning after brisk U.S. factory activity data and a commitment to easy monetary policy by European central banks and the Federal Reserve buoyed Wall Street to record highs overnight.

Optimism on the U.S. recovery also pushed the benchmark U.S. Treasuries near a two-year high and saw the dollar rebound sharply from a six-week low against a basket of currencies touched on Wednesday.

A strong reading in upcoming U.S. payrolls data, due at 1230 GMT, is likely to stoke further momentum in markets, possibly pushing the 10-year U.S. to new two-year highs.

"Essentially, the market is waiting for a global economic recovery in the latter half of this year," said Tohru Yamamoto, chief fixed income strategist at Daiwa Securities.

"We had a decent Chinese manufacturing data yesterday. Periphery European countries are also improving recently. And central banks have confirmed that easy policy will be in place. These are the reasons why a rise in bond yields are not destabilising share prices today unlike in June," he added.

The European Central Bank and the Bank of England both ended policy meetings by leaving interest rates at record lows on Thursday, a day after the Fed said the U.S. economy still needed its support and avoided any mention of a change to its stimulus measures.

The Nikkei share average rose 1.3 percent while Seoul shares climbed 0.8 percent in early trade. On Thursday, the Dow Jones index rose 0.8 percent and S&P 500 gained 1.3 percent to end above 1,700 for the first time ever.

The dollar index held onto Thursday's gains of 1.1 percent, its biggest one-day rally in a month, to stand at 82.318, extending its rebound from six-week low of 81.407 hit on Wednesday.

The broad rally in the dollar saw the euro drop 0.6 percent to a low around $1.3192, while the yen fell towards 100 per dollar, well off this week's high around 97.58 per dollar.

The Institute for Supply Management index of national factory activity for July rose to its highest level since June 2011, easing concerns a slowdown in emerging economies may take a toll on the U.S. economy.

A separate report also showed first-time applications for jobless benefits hit a 5-1/2-year low last week, boding well for the payroll data.

A monthly rise in hiring in the 200,000 area, analysts say, should keep the Fed on track to start to pare its $85 billion purchases in Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities, perhaps as early as at its September 17-18 meeting.

Such expectations drove the 10-year U.S. Treasuries yield to 2.712 percent in early Asian trade on Friday, within sight of a two-year peak of 2.755 percent hit last month.

U.S. crude oil futures prices held on to the 2.5 percent gains made on Thursday, helped by the wave of surprisingly upbeat global economic data and supply disruptions in Africa and Iraq.

(Editing by Shri Navaratnam)