Asia stocks up amid hopes China to boost growth

BANGKOK (AP) ? Hopes China will announce new measures to boost economic growth helped push Asian stock markets higher Tuesday.

Investors were encouraged by weekend statements from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who promised to spur growth in the world's second-largest economy, a shift from previous rhetoric about curbing inflation. Gains on Wall Street after a week in the doldrums also lifted sentiment.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 1 percent to 8,716.27 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.8 percent to 19,075.36. South Korea's Kospi climbed 1.4 percent to 1,824.23.

Renewed efforts to prevent nearly bankrupt Greece from sliding into default and exiting the euro currency union have also provided a slight relief to traders.

A weekend summit in Washington of leaders of the world's major advanced economies provided little in the way of tangible results. But the G-8 countries issued a statement affirming their desire for Greece to remain in the euro, raising hopes of decisive action to prevent an exit.

"There was nothing to really initiate a bounce, but there were no new negatives out of that either," said Benjamin Collett, head of Japanese equities at Louis Capital Markets in Hong Kong.

"When the market has been in fail mode for however many straight sessions, anything that isn't bad news is good news," he said.

Greece faces a major test in June 17 elections for a government to replace the one that collapsed amid political and social turmoil stemming from the country's debt crisis.

If a government is elected that fails to follow through with an austerity plan agreed to by prior Greek leadership, the country could lose a promised multibillion euro bailout from international lenders.

"Markets are by no means out of the woods however ... much uncertainty will remain ahead of Greece's election in just less than a month," analysts at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong said in an email.

"Although some respite from selling pressure will have come as a relief there's a long road ahead, with risk assets set to come under renewed pressure over coming weeks."

Elsewhere, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was 1 percent higher at 4,113.80. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan, mainland China, New Zealand and Indonesia also rose.

Chinese railway shares got a boost from a government pledge that it will allow private investment in railway projects. Hong Kong-listed China Railway Construction Corp. jumped 4.8 percent and China Railway Group rose 4.6 percent.

Japanese auto maker Nissan Motor Co. jumped 4 percent, a day after announcing plans to sell 480,000 vehicles annually in Russia by 2016, roughly triple the number sold in the past business year to March, news reports said.

Heavy industrial shares in Japan also rose. Heavy equipment makers Komatsu soared 5.5 percent and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. added 2.5 percent.

Hong Kong-listed property shares also rose. Evergrande Real Estate Group Ltd. jumped 7.5 percent. China Resources Land gained 3.4 percent.

U.S. stocks ended a weeklong losing streak Monday after shares of Apple ? the world's most valuable company ? climbed nearly 6 percent. That was its second-biggest climb of the year and came after analysts said they expect its iPhone business to continue to do well.

The Dow rose 1.1 percent to 12,504.48. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 1.6 percent to 1,315.99. The Nasdaq composite index rose 2.5 percent to 2,847.21.

Benchmark oil for June delivery was up 10 cents to $92.67 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.09 to settle at $92.57 in New York on Monday.

In currencies, the euro slipped to $1.2785 from $1.2793 late Monday in New York. The euro hit a four-month low against the dollar on Thursday. The dollar was slightly up at 79.39 yen from 79.36 yen.

Associated Press

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