Asian Stock Rise, Led by Toyota, Consumer Electronics Makers

By Chua Kong Ho and Chen Shiyin

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks advanced for the first time in three days on speculation a stronger dollar will boost profits for exporters of cars and consumer electronics.
Toyota Motor Corp., Japan's largest vehicle maker, gained the most in a week. Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. surged after Morgan Stanley raised its rating, citing benefits from the weaker yen. China Merchants Bank Co. led Chinese shares lower for a second day after the central bank ordered lenders to set aside more reserves and a report today showed producer-price inflation accelerated.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.1 percent to 143.68 at 1:23 p.m. in Tokyo, after earlier falling as much as 0.6 percent. The benchmark lost 4.6 percent in the previous two days.
Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average climbed 0.8 percent to 14,131.62. All other Asian equity markets advanced, apart from New Zealand, the Philippines and China. The CSI 300 Index tumbled as much as 3.4 percent, extending yesterday's 8.1 percent slump.
Most U.S. stocks fell for a third day yesterday, led by raw- materials and energy producers. Energy and metal prices dropped after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said economic risks have faded, spurring bets that interest rates will rise and bolster the dollar.
Toyota Motor Corp., which gets about half of its profit from North America, rose 1.7 percent to 5,510 yen. CLSA Ltd. raised the carmaker's operating profit forecast by 13 percent, saying that the falling yen will lift earnings.
Canon, Nintendo
Canon Inc., the world's biggest maker of digital cameras, gained 2.1 percent to 5,450 yen. Nintendo Co., maker of the Wii game console, advanced 1.3 percent to 56,600 yen.
The yen dropped to as low as 107.46 versus the dollar today, after slumping 2.3 percent in the previous two days to a level not seen since Feb. 26. A weaker yen increases the value of Japanese exporters' dollar-denominated sales when converted into local currency.
Fuji Heavy, the maker of Subaru cars, rallied 9.6 percent to 585 yen. Morgan Stanley raised its rating on the shares to ``equalweight'' from ``underweight,'' because of better-than- expected sales on new models.
Elpida Memory Inc. gained 1.2 percent to 4,080 yen. Mizuho Financial Group Inc. raised its rating on Japan's largest maker of computer memory chips to ``strong buy'' from ``buy,'' citing a recovery in prices for computer chips known as dynamic random access memory, or DRAM.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer, gained 2 percent to NT$176.50. Sales in May rose 21 percent to NT$103 billion ($3.4 billion)
China's Slump
Losses in China today sent the CSI 300 Index to its lowest since April 2007. Yesterday's rout was the most since February 2007 after the People's Bank of China ordered banks to set aside record reserves to curb credit growth and inflation.
China Merchants, the nation's biggest dual-currency credit- card issuer, dropped 4.1 percent to 24.27 yuan. Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co., part owned by Citigroup Inc., lost 4 percent to 24.72 yuan.
China's producer-price inflation accelerated in May to the fastest pace in more than three years, the statistics bureau reported today. Factory-gate prices rose 8.2 percent from a year earlier, after gaining 8.1 percent in April.
To contact the reporter for this story: Chua Kong Ho in Shanghai at kchua6@bloomberg.net; Ian C. Sayson in Manila at isayson@bloomberg