SINGAPORE: Asian stocks rose on Tuesday as the first trading day of 2012 in most markets brought renewed appetite for riskier assets, while US crude jumped 1.5 percent to above $100 a barrel on escalating tensions between Iran and the West.
Stronger-than-expected manufacturing data from China boosted sentiment in Asia, but Europe's drawn-out debt crisis continued to cloud the outlook and dragged on the euro, which struggled off a decade low against the yen.
"(The euro) ended last year on a downtrend, breaking key levels. Through much of last year, people were surprised how well it held up," said Greg Gibbs, a strategist at RBS.
"Eventually it started to fall... and that will make the market more sceptical over it and hence it's probably going to look a bit soggy at the start of the year."
The official Chinese purchasing managers' index, which indicated a slight rise in factory activity in December, also lifted industrial metals such as copper on hopes of increased demand.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rose 1.4 percent, led by gains for the materials and energy sectors, with mining heavyweights BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto both up more than 1.5 percent.
Stock indexes in Hong Kong and South Korea both rose around 2 percent.
Japanese markets were closed for a holiday.
Asian shares had a poor year in 2011, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan falling 18 percent, sharply underperforming Wall Street's S&P 500, which finished the year virtually unchanged.
IRAN TENSIONS
The euro bought around 99.80 yen, climbing off a trough of 98.71 plumbed in the previous session, its lowest since late 2000.
Against the dollar, the euro rose to $1.2975, still within striking distance of its 2011 low of $1.2856 hit last week.
Oil rose after Iran said it had test-fired two long-range missiles, a display of military muscle flexing in the face of mounting Western pressure over its nuclear programme.
The move stoked fears of supply disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 percent of world oil is shipped, and pushed US crude up 1.5 percent to around $100.30 a barrel.
Brent crude, one of the best performing widely traded assets in 2011 with a gain of around 13 percent, rose 1 percent to $108.47 a barrel.
Copper, which fell 20 percent in 2011 on fears of a global economic slowdown exacerbated by Europe's debt crisis, rose 0.8 percent, buoyed by the Chinese data, to around $7,664 a tonne.
Gold, which gained 10 percent in 2011 despite a sharp sell-off in the final months of the year as safe-haven investors switched to the dollar, also rose 0.8 percent to around $1,578 an ounce.
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