Aurora Oil & Gas Ltd., an Australian energy explorer, rose 1.4 percent in Sydney. Sony Corp. (6758), Japan’s No. 1 exporter of consumer electronics, added 0.5 percent after the yen dropped against all of its 16 major counterparts. Leighton Holdings Ltd. (LEI) rose 3 percent after Australia’s largest builder announced A$400 million ($419 million) in new work and a new managing director of its Asian, Indian and offshore divisions.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index (CRY) was little changed at 126.34 as of 9:53 a.m. in Tokyo after falling 1.3 percent last week. About three stocks rose for every two that fell. The measure has gained 11 percent in the quarter ending this week, the biggest advance since the three months ended September 2010.

“Commodity prices including oil have risen, which is a catalyst for stronger commodity-related shares such as trading firms,” said Ryuta Otsuka, a strategist at Toyo Securities Co. in Tokyo.

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPXL1) rose 0.2 percent today. Material and energy shares led the index’s 0.3 percent advance in New York on March 23, when the Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index (CRY) of raw materials gained 0.7 percent. Oil for May delivery rose as much as 17 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $107.04 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract climbed $1.52 on March 23 to settle at $106.87 a barrel, the highest close since March 21.

Weaker Yen

Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 0.2 percent as a drop in the yen brightens the earnings outlook for the nation’s exporters. A weaker yen enhances the value of their overseas earnings when repatriated back home. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.1 percent. South Korea’s Kospi Index rose 0.4 percent.

Gains in stocks were limited after new home sales in the U.S. fell 1.6 percent to a 313,000 annual pace in February, the slowest since October, the Commerce Department reported. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for 325,000.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 11 percent this year through last week on optimism the U.S. economy is recovering and central banks from China to Japan to Europe will take measures to spur growth. The increase has boosted the value of stocks in the measure to 14.9 times estimated earnings on average, higher than 13.4 times for the S&P 500 and 11.1 times for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index.

To contact the reporters on this story: Yoshiaki Nohara in Tokyo at ynohara1@bloomberg.net; Satoshi Kawano in Tokyo at skawano1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Gentle at ngentle2@bloomberg.net.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-26/asian-stocks-advance-as-commodity-prices-offset-u-s-data.html

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