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Summary Investors bet on a glimmer of hope triggered by less than expected contraction in Japanese economy.
Asian stocks rose on Monday, with Tokyo getting a boost from better-than-expected GDP figures that showed the country is on the road to recovery after its devastating tsunami. Asia followed a positive end to Wall Streets week with gains in all the main regional markets giving dealers hope after a turbulent few days during which they were battered by eurozone debt fears and a US credit downgrade.Tokyo closed 1.37 percent, or 122.69 points, higher to 9,086.41. Sydney jumped 2.64 percent, or 110.3 points, to 4,282.9, while Hong Kong added 2.76 percent in afternoon trade and Shanghai was up 0.32 percent. Seoul was closed for a public holiday.In New York on Friday the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 1.13 percent, at 11,269.02, taking its net loss over a very volatile week to just 1.53 percent. Global markets had been roiled after the head of the European Commission said the eurozone debt crisis had likely spread from the peripheral states. Then ratings agency Standard & Poors downgraded the United States credit rating, sending traders into a panic and stoking fears the worlds number one economy was heading for a double-dip recession.The US Federal Reserve on Tuesday moved to stem the selling by assuring investors that it would not raise interest rates for at least the next two years. Stocks see-sawed, with traders grasping at short-term leads. But the week started more positively in Asia, with dealers in Tokyo taking heart from figures showing the economy shrank an annualised 1.3 percent in the April-June quarter following the March 11 quake and tsunami.The markets had been expecting a 2.7-percent contraction. Post-disaster falls in consumer spending and in April exports were the main causes of the third straight quarterly contraction, analysts said. But other recent data have started to show signs of recovery in the worlds third biggest economy, as industrial supply chains have been restored and post-quake reconstruction has picked up along the tsunami-hit coast.
