Bernanke Comment Lifts Asian Stocks, Nikkei at 1-Year High

Asian stock markets surged Tuesday, following gains in the Wall Street overnight as market-friendly comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke boosted sentiment.

The Japanese benchmark Nikkei surged 2.36 percent or 236.91 points to 10,255.15, the highest since March 2011 earth quake. Exporter companies’ shares rallied as they got boost from the yen's recent fall against the euro and the dollar.

Toyota Motor surged 3.6 percent and Sony Corp gained 3.08 percent, while Honda Motor and Canon Inc. advanced 3.48 percent.

“The market was very healthy indeed in the run-up to the earthquake last year. Japan is the premier play on global growth. The world was growing and Japan should have been the biggest beneficiary and it got hit by the earthquake, CLSA Japan’s strategist Nicholas Smith told Reuters.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.7 percent or 351.24 points to 21,020.10 and South Korea's Seoul Composite gained 1.02 percent, while Chinese Shanghai Composite declined 0.15 percent to 2,347.18.

Chinese metal and mining stocks surged as commodities rallied overnight on soft dollar after Bernanke’s remarks. In Honk Kong, Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. surged 4.08 percent and Jiangxi Copper gained 3.65 percent.

In a speech to the National Association for Business Economics on Monday, Bernanke stated that the recent job growth appeared to be a reversal of the unusually large layoffs that occurred during late 2008 and 2009.

He also noted that further improvements in the labor market are dependent on faster economic growth, a comment traders interpreted as an indication that the Fed's loose monetary policy is set to continue and further easing is still on the table.