Asian stocks rose for a fourth day, set for their longest streak of daily advances since July, after U.S. consumer spending and car sales increased and as companies across the region reported profit that beat estimates.
Samsung Electronics Co., South Korea’s No. 1 exporter of consumer electronics, added 1.2 percent in Seoul. Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), the world’s biggest carmaker, advanced 2 percent. Honda Motor Co., which gets about 44 percent of sales from North America, jumped 3 percent. Inpex Corp. (1605), Japan’s largest energy explorer increased 2.3 percent after crude oil futures rose.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 1 percent to 123.2 as of 9:46 a.m. in Tokyo, with almost 10 stocks rising for each that fell. The measure snapped four weeks of losses last week on speculation Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke would foreshadow measures to shore up the U.S. recovery. Bernanke didn’t announce new stimulus plans and instead decided to extend next month’s policy meeting to a second day.
“Personal spending data in the U.S. July was a surprise,” said Fumiyuki Nakanishi, a strategist at Tokyo-based SMBC Friend Securities Co. “The merger of Greek banks is positive for financial stocks as default by a Greek bank would deliver a huge blow to the European financial market.”
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