Asian shares higher as leaders hold Ukraine talks

A man looks at an electronic stock board of a securities firm in Tokyo on Thursday, March 6, 2014. Shares were mostly higher in Asia on Thursday as the standoff over Ukraine between Russia and the West continued to ease and the yen weakened. AP PHOTO/KOJI SASAHARA

HONG KONG—Asian markets rose Thursday as Western and Russian leaders try to broker a deal to end the Ukraine crisis, while Wall Street provided a tepid lead following an anemic batch of economic data.

As the threat of an armed conflict in Eastern Europe has subsided, investor confidence in higher risk assets has slowly returned, sending the safe-haven yen falling against the dollar and euro.

Tokyo jumped 1.59 percent, or 237.12 points, to finish at 15,134.75 and Seoul was 0.22 percent higher, adding 4.38 points to 1,975.62, while Shanghai gained 0.32 percent, or 6.49 points, to 2,059.58.

Hong Kong rose 0.55 percent, or 123.19 points, to 22,702.97 while Sydney was almost unchanged, edging down 0.33 points to 5,445.9.

US Secretary of State John Kerry met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Paris on Wednesday for the first time since the crisis began, and while no breakthrough was made both sides will try again later Thursday in Rome.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also spoke on the phone about “possible scenarios for international co-operation” to end a confrontation that has raised fears of all-out conflict and sent global markets tumbling at the start of the week.

“With the crisis situation in Ukraine appearing to settle down for the time being, there’s a dearth of incentives on which to trade,” said SMBC Nikko Securities general manager of equities Hiroichi Nishi.

With diplomacy now taking center stage over Ukraine, traders were able to focus again on economics. On Wall Street, the three main indexes ended mixed following below-forecast jobs data.

The Dow slipped 0.22 percent, the S&P 500 was flat and the Nasdaq added 0.14 percent.

US jobs data disappoint

Payrolls firm ADP said US private businesses added just 139,000 jobs in February, below the average of 186,000 over the prior 12 months and below expectations for 150,000.

While the soft data was blamed in part on severe winter weather and job losses in financial services, the news has raised fears about the closely watched government non-farm payrolls report due on Friday.

Adding to the bad news, the Institute for Supply Management said the harsh weather was partly to blame for the key US services sector expanding at its slowest pace in three years in February.

However, the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book survey of the economy said that while the January-February freeze had hit activity, the outlook in most areas “remained optimistic,” while growth was broadly “modest to moderate.”

The regional review is used by Fed officials to set monetary policy, and economists hope to get some idea about whether the bank will further cut its stimulus programme when its policy board meets later this month.

On forex markets the dollar—which fell to the mid-101 yen level this week—bought 102.76 yen in afternoon Tokyo trade, compared with 102.33 yen in New York late Wednesday.

The euro was sitting at 141.02 yen against 140.57 yen, and well up from the 139.35 yen seen Monday.

The euro bought $1.3723, down from $1.3736.

Oil prices were mixed. New York’s main contract, West Texas Intermediate for April delivery, fell 34 cents to $101.11, while Brent North Sea crude for April rose 22 cents to $107.98.

Gold fetched $1,335.26 an ounce at 1100 GMT compared with $1,333.97 late Wednesday.

In other markets:

— Bangkok edged up 0.04 percent, or 0.57 points, to 1,352.21.

Coal producer Banpu closed unchanged at 26.50 baht while Airport of Thailand lost 1.53 percent, or 3 baht, to 193.50 baht.

— Jakarta gained 0.62 percent, or 28.69 points, to 4,687.86.

State miner Aneka Tambang rose 4.63 percent to 1,130 rupiah, while retailer Ramayana Lestari Sentosa slipped 1.41 percent to 1,400 rupiah.

— Kuala Lumpur gained 0.52 percent, or 9.58 points, to 1,838.69.

MISC ended 1.6 percent higher at 6.40 ringgit while Sime Darby gained 1.4 percent to 9.25. CIMB Group shed 0.7 percent to 7.04 ringgit.

— Mumbai rose 1.11 percent, or 237.01 points, to 21,513.87.

Prestige Estates rose 12.23 percent, or 17.80 rupees, to 163.35 rupees and Reliance Infrastructure gained 10.01 percent, or 36.30 rupees, to 398.90 rupees.

— Singapore added 0.40 percent, or 12.53 points, to 3,129.17.

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation rose 1.17 percent to Sg$9.54 while real estate developer Capitaland eased 0.36 percent to Sg$2.80.

— Taipei rose 0.94 percent, or 80.86 points, to 8,713.79.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. added 2.73 percent to Tw$113.0 while smartphone maker HTC was 0.72 percent higher at Tw$140.0.

— Wellington climbed 0.82 percent, or 41.70 points, to a record high of 5,114.79.

Fletcher Building was up 1.55 percent at NZ$9.80 and Z Energy gained 2.36 percent to NZ$3.90.

— Manila closed 0.94 percent higher, adding 60.68 points to 6,516.82.

SM Investments edged up 0.07 percent to 722.00 pesos and Philippine Long Distance Telephone advanced 1.59 percent to 2,804.00 pesos, while Emperador was up 2.90 percent at 12.08 pesos.