ASIA PACIFIC

STOCKS rose yesterday as investors awaited a decision by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to put off a sales tax increase, add stimulus and call an election, after data yesterday showed the economy entered recession.

The MSCI Asia Pacific index gained 0.6 percent to 140.62 at 4.08pm in Hong Kong after slumping by the most in more than a month yesterday. Abe’s administration announced the plans for the levy and polls yesterday, said the Yomiuri newspaper.

Toyota, Japan’s biggest car maker, climbed 2.5 percent, pacing gains among the nation’s exporters as the yen traded near a seven-year low. Sony jumped 6.4 percent after Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities raised its rating on the electronics maker.

“Spend, spend, spend and less taxation will be cheered by equity markets,” Evan Lucas, a strategist at IG, wrote to clients yesterday. “Japan isn’t the only nation or fiscal union trying to spend its way out of trouble. – Bloomberg