LONDON (ShareCast) - Asian stocks posted hefty gains with exporter riding high in Japan.
The weaker yen made exporters popular. Honda Motor (Paris: JP3854600008 - news)
, Toyota Motor (Frankfurt:
853510 -
news) moved ahead while Canon (Berlin:
CNN1.BE -
news) and Sony (Munich:
853687 -
news) also benefited from good performance from tech stocks in the US.
Aozora Bank and Shinsei Bank (Berlin: LCJ.BE - news) were up on news they were in merger talks.
Mitsubishi Electric (Paris: JP3902400005 - news) powered ahead after the Nikkei (news) business daily said it plans to build plants in the United States and Europe.
Meanwhile, China Petrochemical completed its C$8.3bn purchase of Addax Petroleum Corp.
Across the markets the Nikkei finished up 205 points to 9,796 with the Hang Seng (news) up 382 points to 18,275.