Asian stocks zoomed up Wednesday hitting a seven-week high as oil prices boosted resource shares and emerging economy currencies.
Several factors led to the surge in energy stocks with prices breaking past month-old trading ranges. Reports about non-OPEC producer Russia and key OPEC member Saudi Arabia meeting to discuss the oil market spurred speculation of possible cooperation between the two countries to reduce the global oil-supply glut.
At the same time, the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasted that demand would rise at its fastest pace in six years in 2016.
According to an analyst at Barclay, “These revisions follow a decrease in the oil rig count on Friday and expectations for further inventory draws in tomorrow's Department of Energy data.”
Asian Energy Stocks Up
In Asian trade, Nymex light sweet crude rose 2.1 percent to $49.56 a barrel and Brent added 1.3 percent to $52.61. These moves follow crude oil futures settling up 4.91 percent and Brent advancing more than 4 percent in overnight trade.
Energy shares surged across including in Australia where Woodside climbed 6.0 percent and Origin Energy tacked on 9.7 percent. AWE surged 15.1 percent after it reported strong flows at a natural gas test well in Western Australia. Another gas player, LNG, gained 21.6 percent.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan, were up 1.6 percent, to reach its highest level since Aug. 20.
The Malaysian index hit a near-three-week high after upbeat August trade data. Kuala Lumpur's composite index traded up 0.4 percent at its highest since Sept. 18 after better-than-expected exports data in August, thanks to rising shipments to Singapore, China and the United States.