Vote lifts Asian share markets

Stocks rally as investors look to new US president to focus on economic recovery.

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Investors across Asia are hoping Obama's win will help end months of uncertainty [Reuters]

But others cautioned that a recovery after weeks of market turmoil was far from in effect.

“Changing the president is not going to be enough to save the American economy,” Kazuo Mizuno, chief economist at Tokyo’s Mitsubishi UFJ Securities told the Associated Press.

He said the US was likely to need financing from Japan, China, the Middle East and other countries to fund public bailouts for its financial system and deliver on tax breaks and other measures needed for recovery.

“Even the president is not going to be able to change America without help from the world,” Mizuno said.

Frank Gong, a Hong Kong-based managing director for JP Morgan, said Obama’s win was “an excuse for the market to rally. There’s less political uncertainty and that gives investors more confidence in the short term securities.”

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Analysts say Obama will need global help to fix the US economy [Reuters]

Speaking to AP he added: “Technically it’s more about the credit crisis settling down and the market’s fear coming down.”

The rise in Asian stocks follows gains in New York on Tuesday where the Dow Jones industrial average leapt 3.3 per cent in its biggest election day rally ever.

Markets in Australia, Shanghai, Singapore also rallied on Wednesday, taking the MSCI index of Asian shares outside of Japan to its highest level in three weeks.

Analysts said investors were looking for an end to the uncertainty over who would lead the world’s largest economy amid the biggest global financial crisis since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

“As the US presidential election comes to an end, many political uncertainties are set to clear and optimism is brewing in markets over the new incoming administration,” Park Hyo-jin, a market analyst at Korean brokerage Goodmorning Shinhan Securities told Reuters.

Worries over the outlook for the US economy – a vital market for Asian exports – have hammered Asian shares in recent months.

In Seoul the Kospi has fallen 37 per cent this year, at one point hitting levels over 50 per cent down.

Japan’s Nikkei has lost 24 per cent in the last month alone – the biggest monthly fall in its 58-year history.

Source: News Agencies