ASIAN stocks closed mostly higher

Most Asian stocks rose, with a regional benchmark index extending gains from a seven-week high, as material producers advanced ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s address to the U.S. Congress today.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added less than 0.1% to 135.99, after falling as much as 0.4%.

Japan’s Topix index added 0.2%. South Korea’s Kospi index climbed 1.1%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.1%, while New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index gained less than 0.1%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (HSI) was little changed, while the Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks the bigger of China’s stock exchanges, declined 0.7%. Taiwan’s Taiex Index was little changed and Singapore’s Straits Times Index lost 0.4%.

Material producers gained the most among the 10 industry groups on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index.

Australian iron-ore producer Fortescue Metals Group Ltd added 6% and Anhui Conch Cement Co., a Chinese cement maker, rose 5.2%.

BHP Billiton Ltd. added 2.3% in Sydney after the world’s biggest mining company said fourth-quarter iron-ore production gained 17%. 

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. jumped 11% in Tokyo on a report the carmaker will pay its first dividend in 16 years. 

China Resources Power Holdings Co. slumped 9.6% after a Xinhua News Agency reporter said the power generator and the chairman of its state-owned parent intentionally overpaid for a 2010 acquisition.

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