October 24, 2001	Wednesday	Shaba'an 6, 1422

TOKYO, Oct 23: All major Asian sharemarkets made good gains on Tuesday after a solid performance on Wall Street, but investors remained wary ahead of a slew of upcoming company profit announcements.

Share prices in Tokyo rose 2.8 per cent as investors returned to Japanese hi-tech shares after they saw the solid performance of the United States Nasdaq, brokers said.

The Nikkei 225 average of the Tokyo Stock Exchange closed up 296.15 points at the day’s high of 10,861.56.

Investors are buying back Japanese shares today basically because US stocks were solid overnight, said Masaru Kazama, head of equities at Nissan Securities.

Hi-tech shares attracted investors... I think dealers are short-covering today, he said.

In New York on Monday, the hi-tech heavy Nasdaq composite added 2.2 per cent to 1,708.08 and the Dow Jones industrials rose 1.9 per cent to close at 9,377.03.

In Tokyo, follow-up buying emerged in the afternoon but trading remained lacklustre as investors took a wait-and-see stance ahead of corporate result announcements later this week.

Some players who failed to buy in the morning tried to catch up with early buyers, Mizuho Investors Securities broker Masatoshi Sato said.

But trading was still sluggish as players cannot take a long position ahead of the upcoming earning results season, said Sato. Trading is expected to be limited for the rest of the week.

HONG KONG: Hong Kong share prices surged 4.3 per cent to return to the 10,000-point mark after the gains on Wall Street.

The key Hang Seng index gained 422.30 points to close at 10,219.84.

SYDNEY: Australian shares closed one per cent higher after the positive sentiment in the US encouraged local investors to push into banking sector stocks.

The All Ordinaries index climbed 32.5 points to 3,149.3.

The market is really following the lead from Wall Street... especially with News Corp it’s just catching up, E and C Baillieu Stockbroking director Richard Morrow said.

SINGAPORE: Singapore share prices closed 1.3 per cent higher led by gains in Chartered Semiconductor which reported better-than-expected earnings in the third quarter.

Also buoyed by Wall Street, the Straits Times Index advanced 17.51 points to 1,405.49 while the broader All Singapore Equities gained 5.2 points to 374.26.

Buying spilled over from blue chips into smaller capitalised counters, dealers said.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian stocks closed 0.7 per cent higher on foreign buying and local speculative plays on second liners.

The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange’s composite index rose 4.53 points to finish at 613.62.

Dealers said an upward technical correction of some index-moving stocks, such as Malaysian Pacific Industries and Petronas Gas, helped to lift the market.

MUMBAI: Share prices closed two per cent higher on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) amid improved sentiment after interest rate cuts by the central bank.

The benchmark-30 share BSE sensitive index closed up 60.05 points at 3,061.91.

JAKARTA: Indonesian shares closed marginally higher on bargain-hunting in selected blue chips as domestic security concerns eased.

The Jakarta Stock Exchange composite index ended up 0.025 points at 391.785, off a high of 394.721.

A dealer with a local brokerage said the market gain was all technical, it has nothing to do with fundamentals although we know about the fundamentals of these companies.

WELLINGTON: New Zealand stocks closed up 0.3 per cent fuelled by the continuing rise of Air New Zealand B shares.

Busy morning trading helped the NZSE40 index up 5.34 points to 1,895.88, with the airline’s B shares rebounding nine cents to 33 cents.

The carrier’s B shares rebounded nine cents to 33 cents. Its New Zealand resident-only A shares rose four cents to 32 cents.—AFP