Asia shares edge higher

By Susan Fenton

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Asian shares edged up on Thursday as investors continued to favour riskier assets on further signs that the global economy is picking up, while a weak dollar sent gold to another record high.

The dollar .DXY recovered some losses after hitting a 15-month low early on, but was still down 0.3 percent against a basket of major currencies.

Its weakness encouraged a shift into gold, which hit a record high for a second day, at $1,120.30 an ounce, while platinum rose to a record high above $1,376 an ounce.

A string of robust economic data from China on Wednesday has added to expectations the world's fastest-growing major economy can lead a pick-up in global activity. That has further encouraged a shift from the dollar to riskier assets and boosted commodity prices.

Asian equities rose for a fifth straight day, though gains were modest. Both the MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks traded outside Japan and the Nikkei .N225 were up around 0.4 percent.

Asian stocks were also underpinned by gains on Wall Street where the Dow Jones index .DJI hit a fresh 13-month high, helped by an upbeat revenue forecast from luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc (TOL.N) and the Chinese data. .N

"Even though fears of the U.S. economy dipping again are receding, the biggest boosts are the signs that no stimulus measures will be revoked until a recovery is really confirmed," said Kenichi Hirano at Tachibana Securities in Tokyo.

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