Asian equities mostly firm; Tech shares rally on upbeat Apple earnings

25 Jan 2012 Evaluate

Stock markets in Asia largely exhibited sanguine trends in Wednesday morning trades as the benchmarks got support from the rally in technology shares after Apple Inc became the tech industry’s most profitable juggernaut with record-smashing quarterly earnings that saw the company double its profits and sell more products than ever before. Investors even overlooked the lingering worries over the Euro-zone’s onerous debt crisis where possibilities of a quick resolution to Greece's debt problems seemed to wane. Meanwhile the encouraging economic reports from Europe too supported sentiments as private sector activity in the region expanded for the first time in five months in January while the composite index, that measures activity in both manufacturing and service sector, rose to 50.4 in January from 48.3 a month ago.

The benchmark in Japan lead the gainers as it surged by over a percent and moved toward its highest close in almost three months on the back of deprecation in the yen which boosted export oriented stocks while technology companies too rallied after Apple Inc. reported record sales and profit. The index in Seoul traded on a positive note but with moderate gains as investors remained cautious as uncertainty over a Greek debt deal weighed on sentiments.

Nikkei 225 surged 105.98 points or 1.21% to 8,891.31, Straits Times climbed 23.78 points or 0.83% to 2,873.16 and Seoul Composite advanced 5.04 points or 0.26% to 1,954.93.

On the flipside only Jakarta Composite slipped 19.69 points or 0.49% to 3,974.90.

Stock markets in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan remained closed on Wednesday in observance of Lunar New Year holiday.