Asian stocks advance on US economic optimism

Asian stock markets mostly ended higher on Thursday as higher growth forecast for the U.S economy from the Federal Reserve and solid earnings reports buoyed sentiment.

Tokyo shares ended higher with the key Nikkei index rising 0.26 percent. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Average advanced 28.35 points to 10, 836.64 to log a 10-month closing high.

Exporter companies gained as the dollar remained above the 83.50-yen level due to brighter U.S. economic outlook for 2011. Sony Corp. advanced 1.8 percent and Nissan Motors gained 1.14 percent, while Canon Inc., which gets most of its revenue from abroad, surged 3.92 percent.

Honda Motor gained 1.9 percent on the news that the company may buy back its shares to meet its goal of returning 30 percent of net profit to shareholders.

Chinese stocks ended modestly higher as gains in rare earth firms and power grid stocks were offset by declines in property developers shares after the Beijing city government imposed fresh restrictions on home-buyers in the latest attempt to rein in soaring house prices.

Chinese Shanghai composite gained 0.10 percent or 3.07 points to 2,926.96 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced 0.63 percent or 144.87 points to 23,301.84.

Among Chinese property developers, China Overseas Land declined 3.04 percent and China Resources Land fell 2.16 percent, while China-listed Poly Real Estate Group fell 2.55 percent and Gemdale Corp. declined 2.92 percent.

Meanwhile, South Korean shares ended lower, led by declines from financial sector after a regulator imposed a six-month suspension of operations on two banks hit by liquidity shortages. Benchmark Seoul composite fell 11.89 points or 0.60 percent to 1,977.22.