In This Article:
(Updates levels throughout, adds analyst comment in para 24, chart showing U.S. PCE inflation)
* MSCI Asia-ex Japan tad firmer, KOSPI up 0.5 pct
* Stocks continue to be supported by strong Q1 earnings
* Jitters over whether strong corporate earnings can continue
* China-U.S. trade talks, U.S. data in focus this week
By Swati Pandey
SYDNEY, April 30 (Reuters) - Asian shares extended gains on Monday as tensions in the Korean Peninsula eased and first-quarter earnings shone, although some investors were cautious about the outlook amid the backdrop of a simmering U.S.-China trade dispute.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed 0.9 percent after gaining more than 1 percent on Friday. The index is poised to eke out a modest rise this month after two consecutive losses.
South Korea's KOSPI index rose 0.6 percent and is set to end April nearly 2.5 percent higher following record profits from tech giant Samsung Electronics and after a spectacularly successful inter-Korean summit.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index climbed 1.6 percent, Australia's benchmark index gained 0.5 percent while New Zealand shares gave up early losses to be up 0.3 percent.
Liquidity was low on Monday with Japan, China and India on holiday and much of Asia closed on Tuesday.
Overall, stocks continue to be supported by strong first quarter corporate earnings. More than half of Wall Street's S&P 500 companies have reported and 79.4 percent have beaten consensus estimates.
Analysts now expect earnings growth of 24.6 percent, more than double forecasts at the beginning of the year and thanks in large part to hefty tax cuts.
But investors have grown increasingly jittery with the U.S. Federal Reserve signalling faster rate rises this year and the European Central Bank seen likely to end its generous bond-buying programme soon.
"The key question for 2018 remains to what extent can the benign environment persist?" said Jacob Mitchell, Chief Investment Officer of Australian investment boutique Antipodes which has A$7 billion in assets under management.
Global shares had a dream run in 2017 helped by the first synchronous world growth in decades coupled with easy monetary policies in most of the developed world.
"We believe the unusually favourable goldilocks combination of accelerating growth and tepid inflation experienced in 2017 will not repeat," Mitchell added.
"Instead, normalisation of interest rate policy will likely upset the rhythm with more volatile and less forgiving markets."
Indeed, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index is almost flat so far in 2018 compared with a more than 13 percent jump in the same period last year.