Asia Stocks Off Lows After Obama Win

Asia stocks were off lows on Wednesday after incumbent Barack Obama won a second term as president of the United States.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index  traded flat and the Shanghai Composite Index  lost 0.3%.

Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average  traded down 0.1%, South Korea’s Kospi  put in a flat performance while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index  advanced 0.7%.

U.S. stock futures headed lower in Asian trading hours on Wednesday, with Dow Jones Industrial Average  futures down 69 points at 13,132.00.

“Perhaps Asian traders are content to see the Democrats at the helm given stock market gains have been pretty good under Obama and the threat of economic sanctions by the Republican party on China could have been a big risk-off event,” said Chris Weston, chief markets strategist at IG Markets.

President Barack Obama claimed victory Wednesday from challenger Mitt Romney to start a second term as U.S. president.

Wall Street had closed with sharp gains on Tuesday as investors looked ahead to the end of the hard-fought campaign between President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney.

Matthew Sherwood at Perpetual Investments said before the election that he was hoping for a “conclusive vote.”

Now the “hard work of negotiating a watering-down of the U.S. fiscal cliff between the U.S. Congress and President Obama gets under way and they cannot afford to fail,” he said.

In Hong Kong, notable gainers included apparel firm Esprit Holdings Ltd. ,  , up 8.1%, property firm New World Development Co.   up 2.3%, and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. ,  up 1.8%.

In Tokyo, Panasonic Corp.   advanced 1.6% while Sumitomo Metal Mining Co.   surged 6.8% after updating investors on first-half earnings.

Nissan Motor Co.   gained 4% after the auto maker revealed a 7.7% quarterly net profit increase to 106 billion yen ($1.3 billion), a figure that exceeded analyst expectations.

News Corp.   shares gained 3.2% in Australia after the media conglomerate reported that its fiscal first-quarter profit more than doubled and backed its fiscal-year operating income forecast.

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