The Wall Street Journal reports,"Asian stocks were mostly higher on Monday, at the end of a quarter that was characterized by poor performances in China and Japan and reviving fortunes in Southeast Asia.
The declines in the region's two largest economies, with Japanese stocks on track for their worst quarter in nearly two years, marked a reversal of a key investment trend from late last year when investors shifted away from Southeast Asian markets to North Asian countries that they expected to benefit from a pickup in the global economy".
But investors have shied away from Japan and China, with the Nikkei Share Average down 9.4% so far this year and the Shanghai Composite Index 3.7% lower. Sentiment has been soured in Tokyo by the potential economic impact of a hike in the local consumption tax, which will take effect on Tuesday. China however, has been bogged down by persistently poor economic data, as well as rising fears of debt defaults in the corporate sector.
Indonesia and the Philippines however have enjoyed healthy gains, up 11.6% and 8.7% respectively, with investors moving back into these markets after heavy selling last year as investors tried to prepare for the impact of the U.S. reversing its easy money policies. Indonesia in particular has rallied ahead of an election in July, as well as easing concerns over the country's current-account deficit.
On Monday, Asian stocks maintained the positive momentum from the previous week ahead of a wide range of economic events scheduled to occur over the coming days. On Tuesday, China will release its official manufacturing data and Australia's central bank will make a decision on interest rates, while at the end of the week attention will be on the U.S. labor report.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.9% and South Korea's Kospi was up less than 0.1%. Japan's Nikkei gained 0.8% after the dollar pushed a total of 0.6% higher against the yen on Friday, stabilizing on Monday—the greenback was last at ¥102.84. The Philippines PSE added 0.7%.
In China, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index added 0.2% and the Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.4%.
