Asian stocks mostly up on Wall Street lead

Stocks in Asia ended the week on a positive note today (May 15th), boosted by a strong overnight session on Wall Street. US main indexes rose one per cent each as bond markets cooled down and the dollar weakened.

However, the Shanghai market was down on liquidity pressure, after the release of a string of disappointing economic data. China's Shanghai Composite index closed 1.6 per cent down on concern new share sales will take funds away from existing equities and the sluggish economic growth will damage earnings.

"The recently released economic data was poor," Gerry Alfonso, a trader at Shenwan Hongyuan Group Co. in Shanghai, told Bloomberg. "Investors are now back to stock picking and there are no clear short-term catalysts. There is also a new round of IPOs and investors are likely to be selling some of their holdings."

Japan's Nikkei 225 stock index gained 0.8 per cent to 19732.92 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1.9 per cent to 27822.28 ahead of the city's first-quarter growth figures due later in the day. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7 per cent to 5735.50. South Korea's Kospi fell 0.6 per cent to 2106.50.

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