October 07, 2006	Saturday	Ramazan 13, 1427

HONG KONG, Oct 6: Asian stocks closed little changed on Friday with investors taking to the sidelines and consolidating on recent sharp gains as a range of further holidays get underway around the region.

Even another record close on Wall Street failed to maintain the momentum which has delivering Asian markets to near record or multi-year highs, although dealers said underlying sentiment remained positive.

The mood was reflected Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, Manila and Wellington which all closed flat while only slight gains were registered in Jakarta, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

Bangkok suffered mild losses due to a sell down in its telecom sector after after a court agreed to hear a case that could strip telecom giant Shin Corp of its government concessions.

Seoul, Taipei and Shanghai were closed for public holidays.

TOKYO: Share prices closed little changed, holding near five-month highs as investors turned cautious ahead of US jobs data and a feared nuclear test by North Korea.

Dealers said investors were reluctant to take positions ahead of the three-day holiday weekend given Pyongyang's threat to test its first atom bomb.

The Nikkei-225 index fell 13.27 points or 0.08 per cent to 16,436.06. Volume dropped to 1.54 billion shares from 1.88 billion on Thursday.

Hideo Mizutani, chief strategist at Sieg Securities, said upcoming economic data, including Japanese capital spending numbers on Tuesday, were important for the market given worries over slowing US and Japanese economic growth.

The market expects Japanese core private-sector machinery orders to have risen by 11.3 per cent in August from July.

Machinery orders dropped sharply in July and investors are keen to know if they have recovered enough, Mizutani said.

Machinery orders are a leading figure for capital expenditure. The recovery of the Japanese economy was led by such capex, so if they turn out to be weak, it will put the recovery in question.”In the US, the non-farm payrolls data due out later Friday should give an indication of inflationary pressure, he said.

Canon dropped 80 yen to 6,470.

HONG KONG: Share prices closed flat as the market took a breather after Thursday's strong rally, which lifted the benchmark index to its highest finish since July 2000.

Investors took some profit in China Mobile and select other blue chips but it was offset by rotational buying of some laggard stocks including Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong.

A positive lead from Wall Street overnight, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit another record close, also provided support though trading was rangebound ahead of key jobs data in the US later in the day.

The Hang Seng Index closed down 4.28 points at 17,903.39. Turnover was 37.27 billion Hong Kong dollars (4.77 billion US dollars).

Peter Lai, sales director at DBS Vickers, said trading overall was lackluster.

SINGAPORE: Share prices edged closer to all-time highs, closing up 0.30 per cent with investors taking their cue from another record close posted by the Dow Jones Industrial index.

Dealers said gains in selected blue chips and China stocks led the local market's gains.

The Straits Times index was up 7.82 points at 2,649.30. Volume totalled 1.45 billion shares worth 1.57 billion Singapore dollars (993 million US).

Dealers said investors cashed out of some bank and property stocks, limiting the upside.

Banks and properties have gone up quite a lot already, so now the focus is shifting to China stocks that are doing some catching up, a dealer at a local brokerage said.

He said the next catalyst that could lift the index higher is technology stocks.

Singapore Telecommunications rose 0.07 to 2.47.

KUALA LUMPUR: Share prices closed 0.22 per cent higher due to gains in selected blue chips.

Dealers said the market had recouped from its weak opening as heavyweight Genting extended its gains on the back of strong prospects for its bid for a Singapore resort project.

Investors welcomed the news that Genting's rival Harrah's Entertainment is reviewing its bid for an integrated resort on Singapore's Sentosa Island after receiving a buyout offer, they said.

The composite index was up 2.09 points to 970.98 on turnover of 570.44 million shares worth 848.42 million ringgit (242 million dollars).

There is a perception right now that Genting's shares are relatively cheap in relation to its potential, an analyst from SJ Securities said.

The market also perceives that besides the Sentosa Island bid, Genting's bid on Stanley Leisure (British gaming company) is also gaining momentum, he added.

Genting was up 0.75 ringgit at 25.25.

JAKARTA: Share prices closed 0.30 per cent higher but off their intraday high, as mild profit-taking trimmed the upside driven by gains in selected blue chips.

The composite index closed up 4.651 points at 1,549.629. Volume was 1.56 billion shares valued at 1.88 trillion rupiah (204.13 million dollars).

WELLINGTON: Share prices closed little changed in quiet trade.

The NZX-50 gross index fell 3.21 points to 3,592.49 on turnover worth 116.4 million dollars (US$77.0 million).

Hamilton Hindin Greene partner Grant Williamson said about half the volume was transacted in international crosses and domestic trade was very light.

The sideways trading came after the US stock market reached a fresh all-time high.—AFP