Asia Recovers as G8 Calls Greece to Stay in EU

Asia Recovers as G8 Calls Greece to Stay in EU

Asian stocks open higher on Monday, as investors cheered support from world leaders for keeping Greece in the euro zone.

A summit of the G8 leading industrialized nations vowed to take all steps necessary to combat financial turmoil while revitalizing a global economy increasingly threatened by Europe's debt problems.

The FTSE CNBC Asia 100 Index

[.FTFCNBCA  Loading...      ()], which measures markets across Asia, climbed 0.3 percent.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei

[.FTFCNBCA  Loading...      ()] inched up 0.3 percent to 8,635.7, snapping its seventh straight week of losses, its longest such run since the third quarter of 2011. The broader Topix inched 0.2 percent higher to 726.6.

Japan Tobacco rose 0.9 percent. The Japanese government said on Friday it has asked investment banks to submit by May 30 their applications for the sale of shares in Japan Tobacco that could raise as much as 426 billion yen ($ 5.4 billion).

Seoul shares rose early, pushing back above the psychologically key 1,800 point level after an early rally in blue-chip technology shares that were beaten down last week.

Samsung Electronics climbed 2.2 percent while SK Hynix rose 2.1 percent to highlight broad early gains.

Samsung Electronics rose despite news its CEO and Apple's

[AAPL  Loading...      ()   ] chief, whose companies are embroiled in a bitter patent litigation, have been instructed by a U.S. federal judge to appear for court-supervised mediation.

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI)

[.KS11  Loading...      () ] was up 1.2 percent at 1,804.39 points.

Australian shares rose 1 percent in early trade, as investors sought out bargains and steadied the market after it slumped to a six-month low last week on escalating fears of a euro zone break-up and slower Chinese growth.

Shares in global miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto led gains rising 2.1 and 1.1 percent respectively, after being sold off heavily last week.

Gold miner Newcrest rose 3 percent, after gold rose more than 1 percent on Friday as investors consolidated positions ahead of the weekend.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index

[.AXJO  Loading...      () ] rose 42 points at 4,088.7. The benchmark fell 2.7 percent on Friday and 5.6 percent over the week.

New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index fell 0.4 percent at 3,488.7, to a one-month low.

In Southeast Asia, Singapore's STI

[.FTSTI  Loading...      ()] dipped 0.1 percent, while Malaysia's KLCI [.KLSE  Loading...      () ] traded flat.

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