Earnings season is coming and Asian stocks have another reason to stay positive

(Jan 8): Asian equities may be at record highs but analysts see earnings season, which gets under way this week, providing a further boost.

Profit estimates for all Asian stock sectors were increased over the last three months of 2017, with cyclical shares seeing the steepest upgrades from analysts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Companies that tend to track economic and business cycles -- from technology and energy to consumer and industrials -- had their profit estimates lifted an average 5% by analysts, the data show. That compares with an increase of 4.4% for the wider MSCI Asia Pacific Index.

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