Asian stocks advance

GLOBAL MARKETS/ STOCK REPORT

BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company and Australia's biggest oil producer, and Rio Tinto Group climbed in Sydney. STX Pan Ocean led shipping stocks higher after the price of transporting bulk commodities jumped to the highest in almost five months.

Angang Steel increased to a two-month high in Hong Kong after the Financial Times said ArcelorMittal wanted to buy a stake in the Chinese steelmaker.

 

The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index advanced 0.2 per ent to 498.76 as at 4:29 pm in Hong Kong, with a measure of energy shares adding 1.1 per cent. The regional benchmark was poised for its highest close since January 15.

Markets in Japan, South Korea and Thailand are closed for holidays. The S&P/ASX 200 Index added 0.5 per cent in Australia, where the value of shares traded on Monday was 35 per cent less than the daily average this year. Benchmarks open for trading elsewhere gained, except in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Europe
European stocks dropped after Microsoft withdrew its bid for Yahoo! and investors speculated a two-month rally in equities may slow.

Yahoo tumbled 19 per cent in Germany. Ericsson AB and Nokia Oyj led technology companies lower in Europe.

Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index declined 0.4 per cent to 328.06 at 11:53 am in Frankfurt, while futures on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 0.4 per cent.

The Stoxx 600 has rebounded from a two-year low in March as the bailout of Bear Stearns, US interest rate cuts and better-than-expected results or forecasts from companies such as Ericsson and Google eased concern that $319 billion of bank losses would stifle global economic growth.

US
US stock-index futures dropped after Microsoft abandoned its bid for Yahoo! and Berkshire Hathaway reported earnings that missed analysts' estimates. Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures expiring in June fell 6, or 0.4 per cent, to 1,409.8 as of 12:03 pm in Frankfurt.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures decreased 40 to 13,020 and Nasdaq-100 Index futures retreated 9 to 1,981.25. A better-than-forecast jobs report and the $23 billion takeover of Wrigley sent US stocks to the longest streak of weekly gains in seven months last week.