Asian stocks put on solid gains yesterday, with Tokyo getting a boost from better-than-expected GDP figures that showed the country is on the road to recovery after its devastating tsunami.

Asia followed a positive end to Wall Street's week with green screens all over the region giving dealers hope after a turbulent few days during which they were battered by eurozone debt fears and a US credit downgrade.

Tokyo closed 1.37 per cent, or 122.69 points, higher at 9,086.41 and Sydney jumped 2.64 per cent, or 110.3 points, to 4,282.9.

Hong Kong rocketed 3.26 per cent, or 640.09 points, to 20,260.10 and Shanghai was 1.30 per cent, or 33.60 points, to the better at 2,626.77.

Seoul was closed for a public holiday.

Manila closed 0.25 per cent, or 10.90 points, higher at 4,332.63.

Among the day’s gainers were Lepanto Mining, which added 3.4 per cent to 1.51 pesos and conglomerate San Miguel Corp which also rose 3.4 per cent to 126.50 pesos after reporting a 72 per cent jump in net profit in the first half.

Taiwan rose 2.39 per cent, or 182.37 points, to 7,819.39.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co gained 2.61 per cent to Tw$66.80 while leading food maker Uni-President Enterprise was 5.24 per cent higher at Tw$44.20.

Wellington closed up 1.12 per cent, or 36.13 points at 3,252.63.

Fletcher Building rose 1.1 per cent to NZ$7.70, Telecom Corp surged 3.9 per cent to NZ$2.545 and Air New Zealand slipped 0.9 per cent to NZ$1.11.

Singapore rose 0.84 per cent, or 23.81 points, to 2,874.40. Singapore Telecom closed 0.66 per cent higher to S$3.04 and DBS Bank was up 2.11 per cent to S$14.05.

Kuala Lumpur ended up 1.08 per cent, or 16.07 points, to close at 1,499.74.

Budget carrier AirAsia gained 6.38 per cent to 3.67 ringgit, while national flag carrier Malaysia Airlines increased 1.6 per cent to 1.90. Hap Seng Consolidated lost 0.76 per cent to 1.30 ringgit.

Jakarta rose 1.79 per cent, or 69.49 points, to 3,960.02.

Bank Negara gained three per cent to 4,325 rupiah, Bank Danamon added 2.8 per cent to 5,500 rupiah, while car maker Astra rose 4.2 per cent to 70,000 rupiah.

Bangkok rose 2.28 per cent, or 24.25 points, to 1,086.32.

PTT gained 12.00 baht to 327.00, while Banpu added 10.00 baht to 684.00.

Mumbai was closed for a public holiday. Yesterday the dollar recovered slightly to 76.83 yen in afternoon trade, compared with 76.76 yen late on Friday in New York.

The euro firmed to $1.4295 from $1.4250, and to 109.86 yen from 109.30 yen.

“Market players are bracing for the dollar to fall further to the mid-76 yen range while closely watching for the risk of intervention,” said Nobuyoshi Kuroiwa, senior deputy general manager of Hachijuni Bank’s forex team.

Gold, another safe haven in unpredictable times, closed in Hong Kong at $1,744.00-$1,745.00 an ounce, down from its Friday close of $1,758.00-$1,759.00 The precious metal had surged early on Thursday to a record above $1,800.

Global markets had been roiled after the head of the European Commission said the euro zone debt crisis had likely spread from the peripheral states.

Then ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgraded the United States' credit rating, sending traders into a panic and stoking fears the world's number one economy was heading for a double-dip recession.

The week started strongly in Asia, with dealers in Tokyo taking heart from figures showing the economy shrank an annualised 1.3 per cent in the April-June quarter following the March 11 quake and tsunami.Read More