Asian stocks near 6-week highs

Asian stocks hovered near six-week highs on Wednesday as Chinese data showed better exports and imports/

Asian stocks hovered near six-week highs on Wednesday as Chinese data showed exports and imports in February were better than expected,while the euro and the pound suffered on renewed concerns about Europe’s fiscal problems.

Foreign buying,which has been one of the key drivers of stock markets in South Korea,Japan and India,continued unabated in the region with data showing emerging market equity funds posted a third straight week of inflows.

“Foreign investors were risk-averse in January and February due to worries about major uncertainties like Greece’s sovereign debt problems and China’s (policy) tightening moves,” said Seoul-based Lee Sun-yub,a market analyst at Shinhan Investment Corporation.

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“But those have eased significantly and thus foreign buying has made a strong return. We are seeing money flow not only into South Korea but markets around the region,” he said.

The MSCI index of Asian shares outside Japan were up 0.2 per cent after rising as much as 0.3 per cent to a fresh six-week high.

Gains were retained after data released in Beijing showed China’s imports and exports last month were better than expected.

But Shanghai’s main index was down 0.5 per cent,little changed after the data,with economists wary of reading too much in the way of policy implications into the figures because of the timing of the Lunar New Year holiday and a low base of comparison in 2009.