Asian shares near five month high, dollar loses steam
Reuters - Feb 25, 2015
Asian shares prices held near five-month highs on Thursday after upbeat U.S. housing and Chinese factory data, while the dollar nursed modest losses following Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's comments.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS stood little changed near the five-month high hit on Wednesday while Japan's Nikkei .N225 rose 0.2 percent.
MSCI's 46-country world index .MIWD00000PUS stood just below its double-top of its September peak and a record high hit in July.
"On the whole, the world's markets seem likely to be in a risk-on mode. The valuation still looks not that expensive, except for U.S. markets," said Hirokazu Kabeya, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities.
The price-earnings ratio of U.S. shares stood at 19.6, but the world's markets on the whole were traded at 16.3 times the earnings, according to Thomson Reuters Starmine.
