Jakarta - Emerging-market stocks rose for a second day as oil slid after Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program in exchange for some sanctions relief.
India’s rupee and the Turkish lira led gain in developing-nation currencies.
South Korean builders including Samsung Engineering Co. rallied on expectations some of their construction projects in Iran will resume.
The Borsa Istanbul National 100 Index increased to a three-week high, while the S&P BSE Sensex Index added 1.9 percent in Mumbai as lower oil helps cut import costs.
The rupee gained 0.6 percent against the dollar and the lira increased to the strongest level since November 1.
Gold Fields Ltd. led gold producers lower in Johannesburg after bullion fell.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index advanced 0.5 percent to 1,014.20 as of 10:41 a.m. in London.
Iran reached an accord to limit its nuclear program in exchange for as much as $7 billion in relief from sanctions.
Brent crude sank 1.9 percent, set for the biggest loss in three weeks.
A report today is projected to show US pending home sales rebounded in October.
“The removal in the risk-premium from oil prices, if it proves sizable, will have a positive effect for those oil- importing nations,” Nicolas Jaquier, a London-based economist with the fixed-income team at Standard Life Investments Ltd., which oversees 179 billion pounds ($290 billion), said by e-mail.
The accord is the first major crack in the deadlock over Iran’s nuclear program since 2003.
Western nations have accused Iran of harboring ambitions to develop nuclear weapons, an assertion it denies.
Oil Importers
Nine out of 10 industry groups in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose, led by technology companies, which climbed the most in a week.
Samsung Engineering, which had about 47 percent of its sales coming from the Middle East last quarter, added 3.1 percent, the most in a month, in Seoul.
Indian shares registered the biggest gain in a week, snapping a three-day loss.
The country imports about 80 percent of its crude.
Hindustan Petroleum Corp., a state-run refiner, soared the most in more than two months.
The lifting of a European Union ban on insuring tankers carrying Iranian crude as part of a nuclear deal will ease the process of buying the Persian Gulf state’s oil, according to Indian refiners.
Prolonged lower oil prices would also help cool inflation after the Reserve Bank of India raised its main interest rate last month to curb price pressures.
The rupee climbed to 62.4825 per dollar, while the lira strengthened 0.4 percent.
“Turkey and India in particular would be great beneficiaries of lower oil prices, given the size of the current-account deficits, and the fact that those deficits are almost exclusively due to a deficit in the energy trade balance,” Jaquier said.
Nuclear Program
Turkey’s current-account deficit will widen to 6.9 percent of gross domestic product this year from 6.1 percent in 2012, according to the median estimate of 26 economists compiled by Bloomberg.
The Borsa Istanbul jumped 1.6 percent as 85 of the 100 shares advanced.
Gains in the past two days have trimmed the 2013 drop in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index to 3.9 percent, compared with a 21 percent advance in the MSCI World Index of developed-nation shares.
The developing-country gauge trades at 10.6 times projected 12-month earnings, lower than the MSCI World’s 14.6 times, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Gold Producers
Gold producers fell as the metal slumped to the lowest level in more than four months as the accord between Iran and world powers damped demand for a haven.
Gold Fields tumbled 3.9 percent, while Harmony Gold Mining Co. lost 2.8 percent.
Thailand’s SET Index dropped 0.5 percent to the lowest level since September 6 and the baht weakened to a 10-week low.
Anti-government groups began spreading their protest to military bases, government offices and television stations today after more than 100,000 people joined rallies to oust Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index fell 1.3 percent to the lowest close since September 9.
The gauge has lost 5.5 percent since the November 8 typhoon swept away coastal towns and destroyed an entire city in the Visayas group of islands.
“There are lingering concerns on the extent of the typhoon’s impact on economic growth,” Astro del Castillo, director at First Grade Holdings Inc., said in Manila.
China’s Shanghai Composite Index decreased 0.5 percent after an explosion at a China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. pipeline killed 55 people and crude oil fell.
China Petroleum, also known as Sinopec, slumped 4 percent in Shanghai. - Bloomberg News