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By Bloomberg

Asian stocks rose for a second day, led by consumer discretionary shares, as Chinese equities rebounded and investors awaited the outcome of central-bank policy meetings in Japan and Europe.

Toyota Motor Corp. climbed 2.6 percent, pacing gains among Japanese exporters, as the yen weakened. Kobe Steel Ltd. rose 5.2 percent after Credit Suisse Group AG raised its share-price target. Citic Securities Co. rallied 5.9 percent in Hong Kong after slumping a record 16 percent yesterday. Kingsoft Corp. gained 8.2 percent, rising for a second day, after Chinese handset maker Xiaomi Corp. agreed to raise its stake in the software vendor.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 0.7 percent to 138.50 as of 4:06 p.m. in Hong Kong. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.8 percent today after tumbling 7.7 percent yesterday, the most since June 2008, as the nation’s biggest brokerages were suspended from adding margin-trading accounts. Volatility will persist ahead of the European Central Bank meeting and Greek elections this week, according to Paterson Securities Ltd.

“The speculation is that the ECB will come up with large scale QE and that’s what the market is playing at the moment,” said Mark Andersen, co-head of global asset allocation at UBS Group AG’s wealth-management unit. “On the China side the positive story today was that we didn’t see the economy slow further.”

China Growth

China’s stimulus efforts began kicking in late last year, boosting industrial production and retail sales, and helping full-year economic growth come close to the government’s goal. Industrial output and retail sales for December beat the median estimates of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, with 7.9 percent and 11.9 percent advances. While not enough to prevent China from recording the weakest annual expansion since 1990, the gains helped ensure growth of 7.4 percent for 2014 -- in line with Premier Li Keqiang’s target.

ECB President Mario Draghi is likely to announce a 550 billion-euro ($640 billion) bond-purchase program this week, economists say. Greece enters the final week of campaigning for national elections with time running out for Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s New Democracy to overtake Alexis Tsipras’s opposition Syriza party and hold to the path of economic reform.

Japan’s Topix index gained 1.8 percent. The yen fell as much as 0.8 percent to 118.53 against the dollar as the Bank of Japan started a two-day policy meeting. South Korea’s Kospi index added 0.8 percent. Taiwan’s Taiex index, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index and Singapore’s Straits Times Index each climbed 0.9 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index was little changed. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index lost 0.1 percent.

Chinese equities plunged yesterday after the regulatory efforts to rein in margin lending sparked concern that speculative traders will pull back from the world’s best- performing stock market. The outstanding balance of margin debt fell 1.9 percent to 752 billion yuan ($121 billion) yesterday, according to data from the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 0.3 percent from Friday’s close. U.S. markets will reopen today after being shut for a holiday yesterday.