Asian Stocks Rise on U.S. Auto Bailout Plan

Asian stocks shrugged off negative economic news to rise Wednesday, underpinned by continued faith in government measures to boost flagging economies as Congress neared a deal to rescue ailing U.S. automakers.

Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average rose 1.6% to 8528.01, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index advanced 3.6%.

Benchmark indexes in Australia, South Korea, India, Shanghai and Singapore also rose. New Zealand's market ended down.

Stocks in Japan advanced despite data showing that core machinery orders, a key barometer of corporate capital spending, fell 4.4% in October, indicating that business investment was retreating sharply amid the global slump.

Investors were focusing more on continued economic rescue efforts by governments, including a tentative agreement on a rescue plan for U.S. automakers General Motors(GM), Ford(F) and Chrysler, said Kazuhiro Takahashi, equity general manager at Daiwa Securities SMBC, in Tokyo.

Democratic congressional leaders and White House officials agreed in principle Tuesday on a $15 billion bailout of Detroit's "Big Three" automakers that would give the government extraordinary power to restructure the failing industry.

Fears of a possible implosion of the U.S. auto industry have weighed on stock markets in recent weeks as a failure to come up with a support package would strike a further blow to the reeling U.S. labor market.

Honda(HMC) surged 11.1% and Nissan(NSANY) jumped 5.8%.

Japanese electronics maker Sony(SNE) overcame an initial fall to rise 1.3% after announcing Tuesday it will cut 8,000 jobs -- 4% of its worldwide work force -- rein in spending and shutter plants as it tries to ride out a looming worldwide recession that is battering Japan's export-reliant manufacturers.