March 19 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks gained, rebounding after a third straight weekly loss. Canon Inc. and Toyota Motor Corp. led Japanese exporters higher after the yen weakened against the dollar.

``The dollar-yen is coming back again quite sharply,'' said Masafumi Oshiden, a fund manager in Tokyo at BlackRock Japan Co., whose parent company has $1.1 trillion in assets. ``This is why the exporters are being bought today.''

China's banks surged as investors bet the nation's third interest-rate increase in a year will make loans more profitable. Australian lenders gained after Bank of Queensland Ltd. made a A$2.4 billion ($1.9 billion) offer for Bendigo Bank Ltd., fueling speculation industry takeovers will pick up.

BHP Billiton and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. led mining shares higher following increases in metals prices.

The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia-Pacific Index gained 0.8 percent to 142.38 as of 7:40 p.m. in Tokyo. The gauge fell 4.5 percent in the past three weeks.

Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 1.6 percent to 17,009.55 and the broader Topix added 1 percent. NTT DoCoMo Inc. and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. climbed as investors favored shares of companies that pay higher dividends.

The Philippines Stock Exchange Index fell 0.7 percent after the central bank said an interest rate cut is unlikely. Pakistan and Thailand were the only other regional markets to fall, while Indonesia was shut for a holiday.

China Mobile Ltd. led a 1.7 percent rally in Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index as investors bet the company will this week report increased profit.

Yen Weakness

Toyota, the world's largest automaker by value, added 0.8 percent to 7,670 yen. It generated more than a third of its fiscal 2006 revenue in North America. Canon, the world's largest digital camera maker, rose 2.9 percent to 6,440 yen. Sony Corp., the maker of the PlayStation 3 game console, rose 2.5 percent to 6,150 yen.

Japan's currency dropped to 117.26 per dollar in Tokyo compared with 116.75 in late New York trading on March 16. The yen was at 155.88 per euro, the weakest since March 1, from 155.45.

In China, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the nation's biggest listed lender, rose 4.7 percent to 5.18 yuan. China Merchants Bank Co., the nation's third-biggest publicly traded bank, gained 5.4 percent, to 16.36 yuan.

The People's Bank of China yesterday raised its benchmark one-year lending rate to 6.39 percent from 6.12 percent. The change will add between 0.3 and 4.2 basis points to banks' 2007 net interest margins and 0.2 to 4.3 percent to net income, according to a report today by UBS AG's Hong Kong analysts Sally Ng and Victor Wang.

Bank Earnings

China Minsheng Banking Corp., the nation's only privately controlled bank, climbed 7.9 percent to 11.90 yuan after the lender reported a 43 percent jump in profit and said it sold two billion shares to corporate investors for 18.16 billion yuan ($2.3 billion). Bank of China Ltd., the second-biggest bank, rose 5.8 percent to 5.29 yuan after estimating earnings grew more than 50 percent in 2006.

In Australia, Bendigo, a regional bank, surged 29 percent to A$17.05. Bank of Queensland said it will pay A$5.50 cash and 0.748 of its shares for each Bendigo share, valuing Bendigo at A$17.92, 36 percent above Friday's close.

`Further Consolidation'

Separately, Suncorp-Metway Ltd.'s Chief Executive Officer John Mulcahy yesterday told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.'s Inside Business TV program that the company may pursue takeover opportunities in the nation's banking industry after integrating its A$7.8 billion purchase of Promina Group Ltd.

Suncorp-Metway, the nation's sixth-biggest bank, climbed 2.8 percent to A$21.55. Adelaide Bank Ltd. added 5.2 percent to A$13.68.

``There is talk of further consolidation among the smaller banking stocks and this could be the start of it,'' said Paul Xiradis, who helps manage $6.9 billion at Ausbil Dexia Ltd. in Sydney. ``That's being reflected in the shares of Adelaide Bank.''

BHP, the world's biggest mining company by market value and production, rose 2 percent to A$28.35. Rio Tinto Group, the second-biggest by market value and third by production, added 1.1 percent to A$74.50. Sumitomo Metal Mining, Japan's largest non-ferrous metal producer, rose 2.4 percent to 2,325 yen.

Metals Prices

A measure of six metals traded on the London Metal Exchange added 0.8 percent. Copper climbed 1 percent and nickel gained 1.3 percent.

``The materials sector will remain strong and can be expected to help drive gains over the next three months,'' Oliver Stevens, deputy head of trading at IG Index in Sydney. ``You seen this in the metals markets where nickel reached a three-month high at the weekend.''

NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile-phone operator, jumped 1.9 percent to 212,000 yen. Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., the nation's largest phone operator, gained 1.5 percent to 604,000 yen. Takeda, the biggest drugmaker in Japan, advanced 1.3 percent to 7,660 yen.

NTT DoCoMo and NTT have indicated dividend yields of 1.9 percent and 1.3 percent respectively. The yield for Takeda is 1.6 percent. The 12-month average yield for all companies in the Topix is 1.1 percent.

Philippine Rates

Philippine stocks fell after central bank Governor Amando Tetangco said an interest rate cut is unlikely and that monetary policy is ``neutral to tight.'' Bank of the Philippine Islands, the nation's biggest lender by market value, lost 1.6 percent to 63.50 pesos.

``It seems the trend is for interest rates to rise,'' said Ron Rodrigo, head of research at Unicapital Securities Inc. in Manila. ``Investors will now have to weight whether to stick to stocks or put some of their holdings into fixed-income assets.''

In Hong Kong, China Mobile, the world's largest mobile- phone operator by users, climbed 3.2 percent to HK$72.05, accounting for about two-fifths of the gain in the Hang Seng Index.

The company may report 2006 profit increased 19 percent to 63.77 billion yuan thanks to subscriber growth in rural areas, Allan Ng, an analyst at BOC International Holdings Ltd., forecast last week. China Mobile is scheduled to report its earnings on March 21.

Today's advance was also supported by speculation the company will get a license to operate so-called third-generation wireless services after China Mobile's parent company invited network-equipment makers to tender for the network. The contracts are estimated to be worth 20 billion yuan, Chen Haofei, secretary general of TD-SCDMA Forum, an industry group, said in a telephone interview today.

Adelaide Bank Ltd. (ADB AU)
Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI PM)
BHP Billiton (BHP AU)
Bank of China Ltd. (601988 CH)
Bank of Queensland Ltd. (BOQ AU)
Bendigo Bank Ltd. (BEN AU)
Bank of Communications Ltd. (3328 HK)
China Merchants Bank Co. (600036 CH)
China Mobile Ltd. (941 HK)
China Minsheng Banking Corp. (600016 CH)
Canon Inc. (7751 JT)
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (601398 CH)
NTT DoCoMo Inc. (9437 JT)
Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. (9432 JT)
Rio Tinto Group (RIO AU)
Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. (5713 JT)
Suncorp-Metway Ltd. (SUN AU)
Sony Corp. (6758 JT)
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. (4502 JT)
Toyota Motor Corp. (7203 JT)

To contact the reporter for this story: Stuart Kelly in Sydney skelly22@bloomberg.net; or Patrick Rial in Tokyo at prial@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 19, 2007 06:48 EDT