Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks rose this week after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut its benchmark lending rate by half a percentage point to bolster growth in the world's largest economy.

Nintendo Co., the No. 1 maker of portable game players, advanced for the first time in three weeks. BHP Billiton Ltd. led commodities shares higher after oil jumped to a record. Posco, South Korea's biggest steelmaker, surged to a high after U.S. steel inventories fell.

``There's a good chance the U.S. will avoid a recession and that's behind this relief rally,'' said Leslie Phang, who helps oversee $1 billion at Commonwealth Private Bank in Singapore. ``Investors will be more confident taking on more risk.''

The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia-Pacific Index added 2.3 percent to 155.81, as nine out of the 10 industry groups advanced.

Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average advanced 1.2 percent this week. All markets in the region climbed, except for Sri Lanka. Benchmarks set records in Hong Kong, India and China.

Sumco Corp., the world's second-largest maker of silicon wafers, led a slump by semiconductor-related shares on signs prices for memory chips will continue to drop, denting earnings.

Nintendo, which made two-thirds of its sales abroad last year, rose 4 percent to 57,600 yen. Hyundai Motor Co., which sells overseas nearly four out of every five cars, added 2.5 percent to 70,600 won.

The Fed lowered its key overnight rate to 4.75 percent from 5.25 percent on Sept. 18. The reduction, more than most economists in a Bloomberg survey predicted, was the first cut in four years and sparked the biggest rally in a month among Asian shares.

BHP, Zijin

BHP, the world's largest mining company and Australia's biggest oil explorer, rose 4.1 percent this week to A$41, hitting a record on Sept. 20. Nippon Oil Corp., advanced 3.9 percent to 1,066 yen. Zijin Mining Group Co., operator of China's biggest gold mine, soared 40 percent to HK$12.70 in Hong Kong.

Crude oil for October delivery, whose contract expired on Sept. 20, reached a record intraday price of $83.90 before settling at $83.32. A measure of six metals traded on the London Metal Exchange, including copper and zinc, jumped 3.9 percent this week.

The Fed's move led to the dollar falling against most global currencies, sparking a flight to gold, which is considered a hedge against weakness in the U.S. currency. Gold rose to $739.30 per ounce during trading on Sept. 21, the highest since 1980.

Commodity Confidence

Posco advanced 9.6 percent to 671,000 won. The company said this week it won a $350 million order to build India's largest blast furnace. Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd., Japan's third- largest steelmaker, surged 14 percent to 638 yen after raising the price of steel pipes used in oil rigs by 10 percent.

JSW Steel Ltd., India's largest producer of galvanized steel, advanced 6.3 percent to 725.45 rupees. The company said it may raise steel prices for a second month amid increasing global demand.

U.S. steel inventories fell to the lowest since December 2005, the Metal Service Center Institute, a trade association for the steel, aluminum and metals industries, said.

``Investors can be relatively confident about buying steelmaker and commodity-related stocks,'' said Yasuhiko Hirakawa, who helps manage the equivalent of $80 billion at DLIBJ Asset Management Co. in Tokyo. ``Strong demand for their products is supported by growth in emerging nations.''

China's economy has grown more than 10 percent in each of the past four years, fueling demand for metals. The country is the No. 1 consumer of steel, copper and aluminum.

Sumco slumped 14 percent to 4,100 yen. Morgan Stanley cut its recommendation on the shares to ``underweight'' from ``equal-weight'' and lowered its target price on the stock to 3,500 yen from 6,400 yen, on the view the chip market will remain weak.

Chip Price Decline?

Samsung Electronics Inc., the world's biggest memory chip maker, slipped 2.2 percent to 534,000 won. Elpida Memory Inc., Japan's largest, plunged 9.5 percent to 3,610 yen. The Nikkei newspaper said this week that the company's profit will be curbed by declining chip prices.

Dramexchange, which provides prices for dynamic random access memory chips, said computer-memory prices will drop more next quarter after falling 10 percent in the second half of September because of oversupply.

To contact the reporter for this story: Patrick Rial in Tokyo at prial@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 21, 2007 19:53 EDT