HONG KONG (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks rose, driving benchmarks in Hong Kong, India, South Korea, and Malaysia to records, after Nissan Motor Co. reported profit that exceeded analysts’ estimates and oil surpassed $93 a barrel for the first time.

Nissan surged the most in more than seven years and CNOOC Ltd., China’s biggest offshore oil producer, rose to a high. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. led banks higher after Countrywide Financial Corp., the largest U.S. mortgage lender, said it will rebound from sub-prime losses, indicating the worst may be over for the industry.
“Results haven’t been bad at all,” said Yoshihisa Okamoto, who helps manage $26 billion in at Mizuho Asset Management Co. in Tokyo. “Countrywide’s news is certainly working to boost stocks here today (Monday).”
The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia-Pacific Index gained 2.4 percent to 172.04 at 6:12 p.m. in Tokyo, with all 10 of its industry groups advancing. Benchmarks in 12 countries rose.
Japan’s Topix index climbed 2.1 percent, the most in a month. Among members of the Nomura 400 Index of Japan’s largest non-financial companies that reported earnings up to Oct. 26, 60 percent have exceeded Nomura Holdings Inc.’s pretax profit estimates and 8 percent have missed them, the brokerage said.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index exceeded 31,000 points for the first time. Bank of Communications Co. closed at a record after HSBC Holdings Plc. raised its stake in the Chinese lender.
The value of MSCI’s Asia-Pacific index has jumped about $2.1 trillion this year as investors bet on stronger earnings growth in China and India amid a U.S. housing recession. China Life Insurance Co. Monday surpassed AT&T Inc. in market value, giving the Asian country five of the world’s 10 largest companies, compared with three for the U.S.
--------------------------------------- Countrywide reassures
Comments from Countrywide on Oct. 26 that last quarter was its “earnings trough” helped reassure investors. The company lost almost 60 percent of its market capitalization this year in what Chief Executive Officer Angelo Mozilo called the worst housing market since the Great Depression.
Nissan, Japan’s No. 3 automaker, soared 14 percent to 1,283 yen, the biggest jump since Sept. 29, 2000. The company said net income in the latest quarter totaled 120 billion yen ($1.1 billion), beating analyst estimates. Nomura lifted its recommendation on Nissan to “strong buy” from “buy.”
China Construction Bank Corp., the world’s second-largest bank by market value, gained 6.4 percent to close at a record HK$8.27 in Hong Kong. Credit Suisse Group, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Merrill Lynch & Co., and Morgan Stanley raised their share-price targets after the lender reported earnings. China Unicom Ltd., the smaller of the nation’s two mobile-phone companies, advanced 8 percent to HK$18.38, the highest close since Oct. 5, 2000, after the company’s earnings beat analysts’ estimates.
----------------------------- Earnings, growth
“The market is way ahead of where the earnings are right now,” said Stephen Gollop, chief executive officer of Tyche Group Ltd., a Hong-Kong based investment advisory firm with $300 million in assets. “We need to keep that growth going just to sustain the markets.”
BHP Billiton Ltd. paced gains among miners as copper prices climbed. BHP, the world’s largest mining company and Australia’s biggest oil producer, rose 3.4 percent to A$47.30. Zinifex Ltd., the world’s third-largest zinc-mining company, added 2.4 percent to A$18.59. CNOOC advanced 9 percent to close at a record HK$16.56.
“Firm commodity prices are providing strong momentum for growth in underlying earnings for companies like BHP,” said Hans Kunnen, who helps manage the equivalent of $117 billion at Colonial First State Global Asset Management in Sydney.
-------------------------- Oil rises
Crude oil futures in New York, which have gained 51 percent this year, rose as much as 1.5 percent in after-hours trading to $93.20 a barrel. A measure of six metals traded on the London Metal Exchange climbed 1.2 percent on Oct. 26. Copper rose 1.4 percent. Gold gained to the highest since January 1980.
Mortgage defaults by people with poor credit histories triggered a worldwide rout in debt and stock markets in July and August, spurring losses for lenders including Countrywide and sending the U.S. housing market deeper into recession.
Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho Financial Group Inc., and six other Japanese banks reported in August combined losses of 18.7 billion yen linked to investments backed by sub-prime loans.
Mitsubishi UFJ, Japan’s biggest bank by market value, rose 4.7 percent to 1,091 yen. Mizuho, the country’s second-largest publicly traded lender, climbed 5.6 percent to 639,000 yen.
Nintendo Co., Japan’s second-largest video-game maker, rose 4.6 percent to 70,800 yen. The company faces “overwhelming” demand for its Wii game console, Reginald Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, said in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle.
Hitachi Chemical Co., which makes materials for chips and liquid-crystal displays, surged 17 percent to 2,735 yen, after raising its operating profit forecast. The percentage gain, the most in eight years, was the biggest advance among constituents of MSCI’s World index.