Asian Markets Sealed the day with Strong Gains

Most Asian markets rebound today, with Japanese shares jumping as exporters rallied on a weakened yen and extended gains overnight on Wall Street. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 45.68 points to 12,594.03, advancing for the second straight session. The Nasdaq Composite gained 5.46 points to 2,486.70, while the S&P 500 index climbed 5.49 points to 1,390.84.

Energy producers also climbed after crude oil prices reclaimed the $130 a barrel level. Reconcile. The Crude oil for July delivery raised $2.18 to $131.03 a barrel in a regular session on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gave up as much as 66 cents to $130.57 a barrel in electronic trading Thursday.

In the Asian Markets the Nikkei 225 Average soared 3.03% to 14,124.47 in Tokyo afternoon trading, after dropping 1.3%, while the broader Topix index climbed 2.4% to 1,380.63. However on the economic arena, Japan`s retail sales expanded at the slowest pace in nine months in April. Retail sales for the month were up 0.1% from a year earlier, its slowest pace of growth since a 2.3% contraction in July last year, and down from a 1% increase in March.

Sales of cars and trucks were up 4.2% in April, contributing 0.44% to the headline figure, while fuel sales grew 3.2%, accounting for 0.36 % to the overall growth. The higher fuel sales may reflect the effects of the temporary suspension of a government fuel surcharge from April 1 and which was later reinstated May 1

Meanwhile, exporters also helped lift South Korea`s Kospi 2% to 1,841.22, a day after the index lost 1.1%

Australia`s S&P/ASX 200 index advanced 1.1% to 5,709.40. Meantime on the economic front the private new capital spending on buildings and equipment in Australia fell 2.5% to A$20.56 billion in the first quarter of 2008 from A$21.08 billion in the fourth quarter 2007 however the spending rose 4.6% from the first quarter of 2007.

The second estimate for 2008-09 is A$84.84 billion, up 19.5% from the corresponding estimate for 2007-08.

New Zealand`s NZX 50 index climbed 0.5% to 3,563.12, Singapore`s Straits Times Index gained 0.9% to 3,159.87 and Taiwan`s weighted index rose 0.2% to 8,684.92.

Hong Kong`s Hang Seng Index advanced 0.6% to 24,383.99, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index was up by 1.1% at 13,511.86.

China`s Shanghai Composite slipped 1.7% to 3,447.65, giving up some of its sharp gains from the previous session while the Shenzhen Composite lost 2.2% reaching 1,033.69 levels.

Malaysia`s KLSE Composite gained by 0.3% to 1,264.49 while the Thailand`s SET was marginally down by 0.2%.

In the afternoon trading India`s Sensitive Index, or Sensex, was up by 0.2% to 16,485.46 and the broader S&P/CNX Nifty fell by 0.4% to 4,897.50.

In Asian currency trading, the U.S. dollar bought 104.85 yen, compared with 104.01 yen late Wednesday. The greenback bought 104.66 yen in New York trading late Wednesday.

In the Europe the markets edged higher as investors continued to build on the previous day`s strong rally, with miners in the lead after Rio Tinto said that it expects strong demand for metals and minerals over the next 15 years. The oil producers were also on the rise as light sweet crude hovered around the $130 a barrel mark

Overall, the U.K. FTSE 100 index climbed 0.9% to 6,122. The German DAX 30 index advanced 0.5% to 7,069.92 and the French CAC-40 index rose 0.4% to 4,992.79.

The day is scheduled for some power packed event. For the euro region the day started with a bad news as the British house prices fell sharply in May, posting the largest monthly drop in the history of a widely followed housing index.

House prices fell for the seventh consecutive month, dropping 2.5% from April, and were 4.4% lower than they were in May 2007, Nationwide said. The string of seven monthly price declines is also the longest since 1992, during the housing crash of the early 1990s.

The average U.K. house price now stands at 173,583 pounds ($343,824), down from 178,555 pounds ($353,672) in April, Nationwide said.

The British pound fell in the wake of the data, with sterling off 0.5% against the U.S. dollar to $1.9701. The euro is 0.2% higher against the pound to 79.09 pence.

The Nationwide data echo a host of other indicators pointing to a weak-housing market. Earlier this week, housing-data provider Home track`s monthly survey found May home prices fell 0.6% in May, marking the eighth consecutive monthly drop.

In Germany the unemployment rose slightly in seasonally adjusted terms for the first time this year. As per the data release by the Germany`s labor office the number of jobless rose by 4,000 in May, when adjusted for seasonal swings, after a fall of 4000 in April.

As a result, the actual reading of a 7.9% jobless rate in seasonally adjusted terms remained unchanged.

In unadjusted terms, the number of people receiving unemployment benefits declined sharply again.

Data showed that the office had to pay out unemployment benefits to 3.283 million unemployed people, compared with paying 3.413 million unemployed in April.

Money supply growth in Euro zone accelerated in April giving an evidence that financial market turmoil still hasn`t substantially curbed bank lending to non-financial corporations. April broad M3 money supply growth jumped 10.6% on the year, an increase from March`s revised 10.1% rise. On the month, April M3 rose 0.1% from March.

The March figure was originally reported as a 10.3% rise. The March rise was the lowest rate of growth since April 2007. Mortgage lending growth fell to 5.9% on year in April from 6.1% in March, and has been declining since August 2007.

Data on M1 money supply, which comprises currency in circulation and overnight deposits, declined to a seasonally adjusted growth rate of 2.5% from 2.9% in March.