(Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks rose as an OPEC deal to cut oil production sparked a rally in equities from China to Japan.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.6 percent to 136.54 as of 5:10 p.m. in Tokyo. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average increased 1.1 percent, extending gains to the highest level since Dec. 30. Cnooc Ltd. capped its best gain in more than seven months in Hong Kong after oil prices surged on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' agreement to curb production for the first time in eight years. The Shanghai Composite Index climbed 0.7 percent after data showed China's official factory gauge advanced to the highest since July 2014.
Asian stocks rebounded after capping their worst monthly decline since January as the plan to drain global oil inventories removed an uncertainty in markets. A private U.S. report showed companies in the world's largest economy hired faster than was forecast in November as investors speculate over the path for U.S. interest rates and President-elect Donald Trump's spending plans. In addition to the monthly U.S. payrolls report Friday, investors also await an Italian referendum on constitutional reform this weekend.
“We got a couple of good reasons to be more optimistic,” Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney, said by phone. “We've certainly seen a clear change in the U.S. situation and that is continuing to seep into markets. The improvement in industrial and commodity prices and oil in particular speaks to that better demand outlook as well. It's a lot of positives.”
While the overall Asian market slumped in November amid a selloff in emerging markets, Japanese stocks had their best month since July as the yen plunged more than 8 percent. Mining companies as a group were the biggest gainers on the index Thursday, surging the most in more than five years. Stocks pared gains in the afternoon session after benchmark indexes came close to erasing their losses for 2016. The Nikkei 225 has pared its yearly decline to 2.7 percent.
Output Cut
West Texas Intermediate crude soared 9.3 percent in New York trading Wednesday as share prices of energy companies globally jumped after OPEC agreed to reduce output by about 1.2 million barrels a day by January, fulfilling a plan sketched out in Algiers in September to cut its production to 32.5 million barrels.
South Korea's Kospi index was little changed while NCSoft Corp. tumbled the most in four years in Seoul after its new game disappointed investors. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index added 1.1 percent, with energy shares in the gauge surging 7.2 percent, the most since 2008. New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 Index climbed 0.5 percent.
The Philippine stock index jumped 1.2 percent while equity gauges from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand added at least 0.4 percent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.4 percent amid optimism that China's economy is stabilizing. China's manufacturing purchasing managers index rose to 51.7 in November, the National Bureau of Statistics said, as a credit-fueled recovery of smokestack industries helped steady the economy. A gauge of Chinese mainland companies listed in Hong Kong climbed 0.6 percent as energy stocks rallied, with China Oilfield Services Ltd. and PetroChina Co. gaining at least 4.7 percent.
Futures on the S&P 500 Index were little changed. The underlying equity gauge fell 0.3 percent Wednesday, although Devon Energy Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp. surged to 52-week highs.
To contact the reporter on this story: Choong En Han in Kuala Lumpur at echoong6@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeff Sutherland at jsutherlan13@bloomberg.net, Chan Tien Hin
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