Asia Stocks Rise as Japan Gains Overshadow India Slump

The U.S. earnings season “seems to have started off quite well, and we need the fundamentals to come through to support where prices have gone over the past year,” Keith Poore, Wellington-based head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors Ltd., which manages more than $130 billion, said by phone.About 73 percent of the S&P 500’s companies that have reported earnings have beaten analyst forecasts,scissor lift data compiled by Bloomberg show. Fitch Ratings stripped Europe’s temporary rescue facility of its AAA rating after markets there closed, while U.S. inflation and industrial output data are due today.Japan’s Topix rose following a holiday yesterday,Vintage tubs during which Chinese economic growth data that matched economist estimates helped the MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index rise 0.3 percent. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan’s biggest lender,tyres and wheels service & repair equipment added 1.1 percent.The cash equity trading platforms of the Tokyo and Osaka stock exchanges merge today, a move that will see Nintendo Co., Nidec Corp. and Murata Manufacturing Co. among companies that will switch their main market to the Japanese capital.Solar energy-related shares climbed after China announced plans to add 10 gigawatts of solar power a year during the next three years. GCL-Poly Energy Holdings Ltd. (3800), the biggest maker of polysilicon used to make solar panels, jumped 7.2 percent in Hong Kong. Woongjin Energy Co. surged 15 percent in Seoul.India’s rupee climbed to 59.3763 per dollar, paring its slump this year to 7.4 percent. Slowing economic growth and a record current-account deficit helped drag the rupee to a record low of 61.2125 per dollar on July 8.

The Reserve Bank of India increased both the marginal standing facility and the bank rate to 10.25 percent from 8.25 percent late yesterday in Mumbai, it said in a statement on its website. The monetary authority also said it will conduct open-market sales of government bonds totaling 120 billion rupees ($2 billion) on July 18, a step that would drain cash from an economy expanding at the slowest pace in a decade.The RBI’s move left Russia as the only BRIC economy to not have reined in funds in its financial system. Brazil has raised its benchmark rates three times this year and a cash squeeze in China sent interbank borrowing costs soaring to records last month.Australia’s dollar strengthened the most in two weeks to 91.91 U.S. cents. The central bank said the currency’s decline and past interest-rate cuts meant its policy setting was appropriate even as it maintained room for future reductions, according to minutes of its July 2 meeting.Corn futures maturing in December rallied to $5.11 a bushel, snapping a two-day, 4.5 percent slide, as data showed demand increased for supplies from the U.S., the biggest grower and shipper, and crop ratings declined. Wheat and soybeans added 0.6 percent each.Gasoline futures rose to $3.11 a barrel today. Prices of the fuel at U.S. filling stations rose this week by the most since February as crude traded above $100 a barrel in New York this month for the first time since May 2012.The average retail price jumped 14.7 cents from a week earlier to $3.639 a gallon, the highest since June 10 and 32 percent above the five-year seasonal average, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the Energy DepartClawfoot tubsment’s statistical arm, said on its website yesterday.Gold slipped 0.2 percent to $1,281.75 an ounce, after closing little changed yesterday and jumping 5.Antique bath fixtures1 percent last week. Silver sank 1 percent, while platinum lost 0.6 percent.