January 25, 2006	Wednesday	Zilhaj 24, 1426

HONG KONG, Jan 24: Asian stocks bounced on Tuesday, regaining some ground lost during a sharp sell-off at the start of the week, with Tokyo leading gains after an improved performance by Wall Street overnight.

However, dealers said sentiment was still cautious ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year holidays and investors remained wary over oil prices, the pending release of corporate results and US economic data.

Markets elsewhere made more modest gains while Bangkok bucked the trend and finished slightly lower on profit taking following the 1.88 billion dollar sale of Shin Corp to Singapore’s Temasek.

TOKYO: Share prices closed 1.88 per cent higher boosted by Wall Street gains with investors shrugging off the arrest of an IT entrepreneur and searching for bargains after sharp losses.

Sentiment got an extra boost from a slight easing in high oil prices, which had briefly breached 69 dollars per barrel overnight.

The Nikkei-225 index rose 288.24 points to 15,648.89. Volume fell to 1.59 billion shares from 1.89 billion Monday.

HONG KONG: Share prices closed 0.43 per cent higher on a rebound following Monday’s sharp falls, with Wall Street’s modest gains overnight and the Japanese market’s rally helping sentiment.

The Hang Seng Index closed up 65.80 points at 15,530.57 on turnover of 23.99 billion Hong Kong dollars (3.01 billion US dollars).

SYDNEY: Share prices closed 0.26 per cent higher as diversified miners benefited from a strong rise in base metals prices.

“The market’s been a bit wobbly all day but the futures are pointing up after having been down 30 points during the day,” said Bell Potters private client advisor Stuart Smith.

SINGAPORE: Share prices closed 0.14 per cent higher in line with gains in US and Asian markets but investors were cautious ahead of major corporate results.

The Straits Times Index was up 3.35 points to 2,368.32 on volume of 1.18bn shares worth US $642m.

KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices closed 0.50 pe cent higher in line with gains in major regional bourses, with select blue chips in focus.

The composite index rose 4.47 points to 906.98 while volume was 640.30 million shares worth 754.23 million ringgit (270 million dollars).

Among blue chips, Tenaga Nasional and Telekom Malaysia were both unchanged at 10.20 ringgit and 9.55 respectively, while Malayan Banking gained 0.10 to 10.90.

JAKARTA: Share prices closed 0.59 per cent higher, helped by firmer regional markets and easing oil prices as investors focused on banking, mining and construction stocks.

Among major stocks, state-run Bank Mandiri gained 20 rupiah to close at 1,770, its peer Bank Rakyat Indonesia added 75 to close at 3,275 and Bank Central Asia was flat at 3,575.

WELLINGTON: Share prices closed 0.30 per cent higher, helped by a small rebound in market leader Telecom.

The NZSX-50 gross index rose 9.88 points to 3,318.93 on turnover worth 117.1 million New Zealand dollars (67.9 million US).

MUMBAI: Share prices closed 0.90 per cent higher with fund-based buying in index heavyweights after encouraging third-quarter earnings.

The 30-share benchmark Sensex index rose 85.2 points to 9,549.92. Volume totalled 39.1 billion rupees ($884 million)..—AFP